The genocide in Srebrenica (and in Rwanda) and its impact on the development of international law
The genocide in Srebrenica (and in Rwanda) and its impact on the development of international law

Author(s): Ernest Petrič
Subject(s): Criminal Law, International Law, Studies in violence and power, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: Mednarodni inštitut za bližnjevzhodne in balkanske študije IFIMES
Keywords: Srebrenica; genocide; Rwanda; international law; BiH; war; 90s; ICJ;
Summary/Abstract: In Srebrenica the crime of genocide was committed, and elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina crimes against humanity and war crimes were also committed. This is the conclusion, which was drawn by the ICJ in the Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Serbia/Montenegro case. I, as a lawyer and as a person, share the criticism of the ICJ judgement in this case. The mass murders in Bosnia and Herzegovina of Muslims/Boshniacs went on for three years from the summer of 1992 until the Srebrenica massacre in the summer of 1995. Mass graves are still being discovered. It is no doubt that there were several ten thousands murdered in an organised way because they were Muslims/Boshniacs, in Srebrenica, in Prijedor, in Bijelina, Višegrad etc., with a clearly defined purpose (dolus specialis) to cleanse parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina of its Muslim population. Indeed, like "holocaust", which was also committed over several years, from 1939 to 1945 at different places, with the same purpose (dolus specialis) – to exterminate Jews from Germany and parts of Europe controlled by the Nazis. Surprisingly too many, the majority in the ICJ opted for a narrow interpretation of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide drafted in special historic circumstances in the early years after 1945. There are thus good reasons to claim that the crime of genocide was not limited only to Srebrenica but occurred all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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