Die Revisions-Urteile des ICTY zu Gotovina und Markač
The ICTY’s Revision Judgements on Gotovina and Markač

Summary/Abstract: The acquittal of the Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač by the Appeals Chamber of the International Tribunal for War Crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia (16 November 2012) was based on a thorough revision of factual and formal errors committed in the first trial which had led to the conviction of both defendants to long custodial sentences (15 April 2011). Nevertheless, the judgement of the Appeals Chamber has been widely and rightly perceived as political, in Croatia and in Serbia as well as in Western Europe. The political dimension consists in the refutation of the biased assumption that the mass exodus of Serbian civilians must have been the result of a deliberate „ethnic cleansing“ planned, prepared and executed by a “Joint Criminal Enterprise” of the political and military leadership of Croatia – an assumption that blurred the difference between aggression and legitimate defense.

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