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

survive “ethnic cleansing.” Muharem Murselović, who was detained in the Omarska camp
for the crime of being Muslim, has been a willing witness in several ICTY cases. Like many
survivors, Murselović testifies out of a deep sense of duty toward those who perished: “I am
obliged to witness, to testify on behalf of hundreds of my friends who have been murdered in
Prijedor whose guilt was the same as mine. I survived that hell and I never regretted for the
fact that I witnessed.” 32
In his study of ICTY witnesses, Eric Stover found that Murselović’s sentiment is common.
A majority of ICTY witnesses interviewed by Stover “stressed the compelling need to
tell their story. They had survived unspeakable crimes while others had perished; it was their
‘moral duty’ to ensure that the truth about the death of family members, neighbors, and colleagues
was duly recorded and acknowledged.” 33
Acknowledgement
Bosnians grieve for the country they lost, where it was commonplace for friendships to transcend
ethnic identity and where churches and mosques shared the same public space. The
“grotesque intimacy” 34 of the ethnic violence that consumed Bosnia in the 1990s was one
of its signal and searing features. This dimension of wartime violence perhaps intensified
many Bosnians’ hope that the judicial truth established in The Hague would open the way to
acknowledgement of wrongdoing and expressions of remorse. More particularly, many hoped
that, by establishing nightmarish facts through the crucible of trial, the ICTY would lead
those who committed crimes, and those who averted their eyes when they were in a position
to protest, to acknowledge what happened, condemn crimes committed in their name, and
express remorse.
As we recount in Chapter V, Bosnia has seen only limited progress toward this goal.
Leaders of all three major ethnic groups have treated convicted war criminals from their own
ethnic group as war heroes, and most Bosnians experience justice through an ethnic lens.
It seemed for a good part of the past decade that outright denial of crimes had given way to
“mere” distortion, but even this development came into question in September 2009, when
Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik argued that—contrary to the findings of the
ICTY and the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber—Bosnian Serb forces were not responsible for
shelling incidents in Sarajevo and Tuzla in which scores of civilians had been killed. Dodik
claimed that the Bosniak-dominated Bosnian Army staged the incidents to provoke NATO
military action against Bosnian Serbs. 35
Although the ICTY’s judgments have not produced the type of widespread acknowledgment
that some hoped they would, many Bosnians believe that the ICTY’s unassailable
conclusions are a form of justice in themselves. Commenting on the ICTY judgment in the
Krstić genocide case, human rights campaigner Mirsad Tokača told us: “After this decision,
THAT SOMEONE GUILTY BE PUNISHED 19