That Someone Guilty Be Punished - International Center for ...

135. Interview with Mirsad Duratović, Prijedor, Dec. 8, 2006. Among those whom Duratović lost
were his father and 15-year-old brother.
136. For example, saying he does “not believe in the theory of justice being a precondition for
reconciliation,” Zdravko Grebo said that instead, “justice is important for its own sake.” Zdravko
Grebo, director, Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo,
Dec. 4, 2006.
137. UN Doc. S/RES/827, preamble (May 25, 1993).
138. Report of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious
Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the former Yugoslavia
since 1991, UN Doc. A/49/342-S/1994/1007, 11 (Aug. 29, 1994).
139. Interview with Jasna Bakšić Muftić, professor, Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo,
Nov. 30, 2006.
140. Interview with Mirsad Tokača, president, Research and Documentation Center Sarajevo,
Sarajevo, Dec. 6, 2006.
141. Interview with Kada Hotić, vice president, Mothers of Srebrenica and Žepa Enclave, Sarajevo,
July 24, 2009.
142. Stefan Priesner, Lynne O’Donoghue, Alma Dedić, United Nations Development Programme,
BiH, “Transitional Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Findings of a Public Survey,” p. 5, paper presented
at the conference “Pathways to Reconciliation and Global Human Rights,” Sarajevo, Aug.
16–19, 2005. When asked what should happen to people who “caused unjustifiable harm to others
during the war,” two-thirds of respondents to a poll commissioned by UNDP said they “believed
that all individuals who committed war crimes should be held accountable.” Moreover there was
“no significant differences between the entities and the three constituent people.” Id.
143. Id., p. 7 (showing that 55 percent of those polled thought that a truth and reconciliation
commission is needed and should be established).
144. Interview with Nerma Jelačić, then director of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in
BiH, Sarajevo, Dec. 1, 2006. Jelačić was fifteen years old when her hometown of Višegrad was
“cleansed” by Serbs.
145. This point is noteworthy in itself. It has often been said that, while the international community
believes that international courts should focus their finite resources on those suspected
of bearing primary responsibility for mass atrocities, victims have a greater need to see the direct
perpetrators punished. While this is important for many victims in Bosnia, our interlocutors were
more likely to emphasize the importance of prosecuting senior suspects.
146. See European Stability Initiative, “Return to Europe: Portrait of Nidžara Ahmetašević,” at
http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=enandid=280andportrait_ID=4.
147. Interview with Nidžara Ahmetašević, editor, BIRN in BiH, Sarajevo, July 13, 2009.
Ahmetašević also emphasized the value of having war crimes prosecutions before Bosnia’s relatively
new war crimes chamber, which we discuss in Chapter VI. In her view, “it’s just crucial” to have
justice “on a local level.” She added, however: “I’m not saying that Karadžić and Mladić should be
tried here; we don’t have the capacity here” to try those two men, and then addressed the symbolic
importance of their prosecution by an international court.
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