The ICTY Trials and Transitional Justice in Former Yugoslavia

摘要

If attempts at rewriting history, such as the denial in Germany of the Holocaust, are to be prevented, the courts must do everything possible to bring out the truth. In this context, one of the tasks for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is to put an end to the practice of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia of passing over in silence or denying atrocities, or persistently broadcasting their distorted and biased versions of the past—versions that focus exclusively on their own victims and the crimes of the other side. The Tribunal has, without doubt, managed to carry out one part of this task—establishing the responsibility of the accused individuals—leaving us a legacy of the truth as an ineradicable memory and a potent weapon against denial. One of the hardest truths was the genocide against the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. A Bosnian Serb, General Krstic, and a number of his close associates, senior officers of the Bosnian Serb army, were found guilty and sentenced for this crime. However, the truth disclosed at The Hague had no effect in the region of the former Yugoslavia until it was acknowledged by Republika Srpska.