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

waiting for; this is the way to madness.” But once the ICTY ruled that some 7–8,000 Muslim
men were victims of genocide, “their family members were recognized, named. They got a
sense of life; [they were able] to start life again.” 409
In our own interviews with mothers from Srebrenica, we found widespread appreciation
for the ICTY’s judgment of genocide, even as we heard concerns about many other
aspects of the Tribunal’s performance. For example, after describing her concerns about the
ICTY, Hatidža Mehmedović added: “Despite [these concerns,] we have to be honest and say the
Hague [Tribunal] was the one who sentenced and reached the verdict of Krstić for the … crime
of genocide committed here in Srebrenica. This is what matters to us, this is what is the most
important to us, to the families, to the victims, that justice is reached.” 410 More than five years
after the ICTY Trial Chamber first ruled the massacre at Srebrenica to be a genocide, journalist
Nerma Jelačić observed: “It’s still important—this is a huge judgment to this day. [Krstić
is] probably the only one that gave victims a sense of the most complete thing to justice.” 411
Yet Emir Suljagić, who along with thousands of other Muslims had sought refuge in
Srebrenica before it became the most dangerous place on earth, has a “problem with this
whole Srebrenica thing. This whole thing started as genocide in Bosnia and it ended with
genocide in Srebrenica and it’s so unfair to those tens of thousands of people” who died
before the July 1995 massacre that their extermination is left outside the ICTY’s judgment of
genocide in Krstić. 412 Even so, Suljagić came to realize how much the judgment meant to him,
too, when he read the Appeals Chamber’s 2004 judgment in Krstić. 413 “That was the moment
I realized, my god, we are in that select group of nations whose existence has been brought
into question, literally, physically, and that’s when the importance of this judgment—that’s
when I realized it.” 414
2. Absence of genocide convictions in other cases
Suljagić is not alone in hoping that the ICTY will eventually rule that genocide was committed
not only in Srebrenica, but throughout Bosnia. Mirsad Tokača, who has developed an extensive
database of confirmed victims, believes his data show that “genocide happened in 1992”—i.e.,
well before July 1995. 415
To date, however, the ICTY has not rendered any judgments finding that genocide
occurred in Bosnia other than in Srebrenica and for a variety of reasons has not convicted anyone
other than Radislav Krštić of genocide in relation to Srebrenica. In some instances, individuals
indicted on genocide-related charges elsewhere in Bosnia have died before they could
be prosecuted to final judgment; 416 in others, including the case against Biljana Plavšić, 417 a
plea agreement led to the prosecutor’s agreement to drop genocide-related charges or the
defendant was acquitted of genocide-related charges following his trial. 418 One of the small
number of ICTY defendants charged with genocide, Radovan Karadžić, eluded capture for
some fourteen years and is now on trial but the trial judgment in his case is not expected until
THAT SOMEONE GUILTY BE PUNISHED 67