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

Victims’ Justice
The Security Council recognized several supporting reasons for creating the ICTY, and students
of transitional justice have elaborated further justifications while questioning others.
Our interviews in Bosnia reminded us that for those who survived wartime atrocities, the
Tribunal is important for one reason above all—to provide justice.
It was in Bosnia that the depredations associated with “ethnic cleansing”—an attempt by
one ethnic group to purge territory of other ethnic groups by inflicting horrific crimes on their
members—reached soaring proportions. While members of all three of Bosnia’s dominant
ethnic groups suffered atrocities at the hands of others, Bosniaks—the word commonly used
by Bosnian Muslims—bore the brunt of nationalist fury. According to the most authoritative
database on the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 83.33 percent of the civilians who were killed or
are still missing as a result of wartime violence were Bosniak; 10.27 percent Serb; and 5.45
percent Croat. 2
These are the data of victims who did not survive the harrowing crimes that consumed
Bosnia for three and a half years. Today, Bosnia is filled with individuals who did survive but
whose lives were shattered. No measure of justice can restore what they have lost, and the
survivors we interviewed are acutely aware of this: Trials cannot bring husbands, children, and
parents back to life or dispel the lasting trauma of being raped or detained in conditions evocative
of Nazi-era concentration camps. But many Bosnian survivors “desperately need justice.” 3
As one of our interlocutors noted, they “weren’t just hit by a bus. Someone did terrible things
many times over.” 4 Those who survived unfathomable cruelty “don’t expect perfect justice,”
she continued, “but they want some kind of justice.” 5 Law professor Jasna Bakšić Muftić made
much the same point, noting: “After all kinds of war crimes and genocide, the people need
some sort of satisfaction … that someone guilty be punished.” 6
Like many survivors, Mirsad Duratović is perplexed when asked to articulate his reasons
for supporting the ICTY despite his disappointments in its performance. Duratović, who was
interned in the infamous Omarska camp at the age of 17, counts more than 60 relatives lost
to “ethnic cleansing” in Prijedor. “What I have gone through,” he explains, “I think whoever
was in my shoes would … like to see some justice being done.” If the interviewer ever experienced
what he had, he continued, “then it would be clear to you … why you want [justice].” 7
Gradations of Justice
For most Bosnian survivors, justice is not experienced as black or white, something the ICTY
has either provided or has not. Instead, the Tribunal’s work has provided some measure of
justice, often experienced as flawed, sometimes deeply so. Since much of this report explores
THAT SOMEONE GUILTY BE PUNISHED 13