26.09.2008
September 25, 2008 (the date of publication in Russian)
Grigory Geroyev
"THE BOSNIAN BUTCHER" IS NEARLY EXONERATED
The Hague Tribunal believes that three years of custody is an adequate retribution for mass murder
In the middle of September, the Hague-based International Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia amazed the public with one more decision, inconsistent with practice of international law. The Tribunal sentenced General Rasim Delic, former commander of the Army Staff of the Repuiblic of Bonsia and Herzegovina, to a symbolic term of three years of prison – though the general was accused of violation of martial laws and conventions, as well as crimes against humanity.
Sixty-four witnesses testified that in his capacity of Chief of Army Staff in 1993-1995, Rasim Delic tolerated the practice of torture, applied to Serbian and Croatian prisoners of war by the El Mujahid command that was under his supervision. The special command was formed in August 1993 by radical Moslem mercenaries from Middle East states.
According to Derrill Mandis, prosecuting counsel of the Tribunal, Rasim Delic was perfectly aware of the practice of torture, performed by El Mujahid, but never tried to prevent their brutality. The counsels put in a report of the Army Staff's security department describing El Mujahid's mercenaries cutting off heads of Serbian POWs. This happened in several Bosnian villages. According to the counsel, Rasim Delic is directly responsible for assassination of 60 Serbian POWs, as well as numerous Croats, and worthily deserved the nickname of "Bosnian butcher".
General Rasim Delic voluntarily gave in to the Hague Tribunal in February 2005. In his first testimony, he denied all the accusations and was released until the trial, though Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte repeatedly insisted on his incarceration. Delic spent 448 days in the Tribunal's detention facility. This period is now included into his prison term.
In Russia – unlike the Western community – the Tribunal's decision is regarded as a typical example of biased judicial approach. But only few advocates of justice are aware of the fact that the Hague Tribunal, once established as a special body of the UN Security Council, does not have any enforcement power at all. Though the UNSC has a right to use military force against a particular state, its bodies don't have any legal judicial power. In his book "The Milosevic Trial: Notes from the Courtroom", Russian lawyer Alexander Mizyaev reminded that "the very decision of the UNSC to establish a judicial body was an abuse of power. In fact, it is legally void. In its resolution on establishing the body, the UNSC referred not to a paragraph but to a chapter of the UN Charter. From the legal standpoint, this is similar to issuing a death penalty with reference just to the Criminal Code".
The only substantiation of the UNSC decision is the right to establish additional bodies. This means that the Hague Tribunal is not more than an auxiliary element of a political body, and therefore, independence of its judicial decisions cannot be guaranteed – as well as justice, as it is obvious for any unbiased observer.
The permissive, or actually exonerative sentence for the commander, labeled as a butcher by both Serbs and Croats, is in fact a shield for unlawfulness of the Hague justice. Earlier, the Tribunal subtly exonerated one more Bosnian military criminal, Nasser Oric. This bias reveals the role of the Tribunal as an instrument of destruction of Yugoslavia and annihilation of the Serbian nation.
In his comments on the sentence for Rasim Delic, Serbia's Prime Minister Milorad Dodik claimed that "this verdict has ruined the last illusions over the Tribunal's neutrality". Croatian authorities also recognized the decision as "disgustingly permissive".
The practice of the Hague Tribunal illustrates not just double standards but moreover, falsification of the system of international law. In fact, this court does not have any right for existence but still issues sentences that determine the fate of politicians, and keeps them in detention that sometimes brings them to death, as that was in the case of Slobodan Milosevic. At the same time, military functionaries, directly involved in ethnic cleansing, are pardoned by the judges. Vojislav Seselj, a politician and scientist, is kept in custody only for his political views, while Hashim Thaci, a former military commander suspected of being involved in illicit sale of human organs, taken from prisoners of war, is allowed not only to make a political career but to receive the post of Kosovo's Prime Minister.
The tolerance of Western public, particularly the judicial community, to the practice of the Hague Tribunal, is as disgusting as the strikingly biased decisions, illustrating the adherence of the Western establishment to double standards – the tradition for which the whole Europe – especially in the case of Kosovo – is paying with its own political stability.
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