SHAME ON YOU HAGUE TRIBUNAL!
UPDATE @ 12/12/2012: We welcome Judge Christoph Flugge's acknowledgement that genocide took place in Srebrenica. Dear Judge, thank you for aligning your opinion with the facts. You have our respect!
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Shame on you for allowing genocide denier, German Judge Christoph Flügge, stay on the bench!
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) never responded to our requests to remove controversial German Judge Christoph Flügge from the case against Radovan Karadzic. Since July, the Bosniak community and our activists have sent hundreds of E-mails and faxed numerous letters to the ICTY. It doesn't cost anything to "respond" to legitimate concerns of the Bosniak community, but the ICTY simply doesn't care. It is disturbingly obvious that the ICTY's conduct with the media and victims' rights groups is highly unprofessional.
No wonder many Serb war criminals managed to avoid conviction on charges of the Bosnian genocide and Srebrenica genocide - two undisputable cases of genocide committed by the Bosnian Serb leadership with moral, financial, military, and logistical help from Serbia. When you have a system that favors criminals and when you have a highly unprofessional judge like Christoph Flügge who doesn't have intelligence to keep his political leanings to himself, then you end up with a catastrophe - especially when you expect the system to properly prosecute high profile mass murderers like Radovan Karadzic.
U.N. judges are on record for repeatedly demanding charges against Karadzic to be "cut down" so his rights to a fair trial would not be violated. What about the rights of innocent women, children, men, and elderly who were tortured, maimed, disabled, raped, killed, burned alive, dumped into mass graves, or simply dissapeared never to be found again? Do they have any rights? Do they have a right to see Karadzic answer at least MOST if not ALL of charges against him?
In July, we joined a campaign launched by the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) to remove Judge Flügge from the Karadzic case because of judge's lack of impartiality with respect to the Hague’s Rule 15(A):
No wonder many Serb war criminals managed to avoid conviction on charges of the Bosnian genocide and Srebrenica genocide - two undisputable cases of genocide committed by the Bosnian Serb leadership with moral, financial, military, and logistical help from Serbia. When you have a system that favors criminals and when you have a highly unprofessional judge like Christoph Flügge who doesn't have intelligence to keep his political leanings to himself, then you end up with a catastrophe - especially when you expect the system to properly prosecute high profile mass murderers like Radovan Karadzic.
U.N. judges are on record for repeatedly demanding charges against Karadzic to be "cut down" so his rights to a fair trial would not be violated. What about the rights of innocent women, children, men, and elderly who were tortured, maimed, disabled, raped, killed, burned alive, dumped into mass graves, or simply dissapeared never to be found again? Do they have any rights? Do they have a right to see Karadzic answer at least MOST if not ALL of charges against him?
In July, we joined a campaign launched by the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) to remove Judge Flügge from the Karadzic case because of judge's lack of impartiality with respect to the Hague’s Rule 15(A):
“A Judge may not sit on a trial or appeal in any case in which the Judge has a personal interest or concerning which the Judge has or has had any association which might affect his or her impartiality. The Judge shall in any such circumstance withdraw, and the President shall assign another Judge to the case.”
Don't we deserve a response to our legitimate concerns? Even if the ICTY refuses to remove Judge Flügge from the bench, wouldn't it be polite just to respond and acknowledge our legitimate concerns? Wouldn't it?
After all, it was Judge Christoph Flügge who made a controversial statement to the German weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” in which he openly questioned the Srebrenica genocide. Does he look like an impartial judge to you?
According to the article, Judge Flügge stated that “the term genocide to define these crimes is unnecessary” instead preferring to refer to it as “mass murder”. He claimed that there is no reason to differentiate between “a group that is murdered for their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or race, as is regulated by the Hague Statute” and a group that “happens to be gathered at a specific location”.
Then, the Congress of North American Bosniaks requested a complete retraction of the statement made by Judge Flügge given the fact that the highest international courts have already confirmed, in several cases, including the 2007 ruling against Serbia and Montenegro, the classification of the murder of more than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica and the ethnic cleansing of 30,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica as genocide. This fact has also been recognized by organizations and governments across the world, including the U.S Congress and the European Parliament.
Therefore, it is evident that by denying the previous ruling of the ICTY regarding the Srebrenica genocide, Judge Flügge is unable to show impartiality to the case. For these reasons, we request again that the Court removes Judge Flügge from his role in the proceedings against Radovan Karadzic, or in any case dealing specifically with charges of genocide.
According to the Congress of North American Bosniaks,
After all, it was Judge Christoph Flügge who made a controversial statement to the German weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” in which he openly questioned the Srebrenica genocide. Does he look like an impartial judge to you?
According to the article, Judge Flügge stated that “the term genocide to define these crimes is unnecessary” instead preferring to refer to it as “mass murder”. He claimed that there is no reason to differentiate between “a group that is murdered for their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or race, as is regulated by the Hague Statute” and a group that “happens to be gathered at a specific location”.
Then, the Congress of North American Bosniaks requested a complete retraction of the statement made by Judge Flügge given the fact that the highest international courts have already confirmed, in several cases, including the 2007 ruling against Serbia and Montenegro, the classification of the murder of more than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica and the ethnic cleansing of 30,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica as genocide. This fact has also been recognized by organizations and governments across the world, including the U.S Congress and the European Parliament.
Therefore, it is evident that by denying the previous ruling of the ICTY regarding the Srebrenica genocide, Judge Flügge is unable to show impartiality to the case. For these reasons, we request again that the Court removes Judge Flügge from his role in the proceedings against Radovan Karadzic, or in any case dealing specifically with charges of genocide.
According to the Congress of North American Bosniaks,
"The statements made by Judge Flügge amount to genocide denial and can have dangerous consequences on the Court’s ability to justly prosecute war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina including the very important case against the accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic. It is crucial that the seriousness of this matter is fully addressed by the Court."
SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. In July 1995 the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of Srebrenica and its surrounding area, where they proceeded to perpetrate genocide. Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.
posted by Srebrenica Genocide at 1:30 PM
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