Bosnian genocide survivors demonstrate outside the UN Tribunal
October 25, 2009
Together with surviving victims of the genocide in Bosnia the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is demonstrating at the beginning of the trial against the presumed war criminal and former President of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, on Monday at the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.
About 150 Srebrenica mothers and also representatives of the victims’ organisations from Prijedor, Brcko, Zvornik, Kotor Varos, the Association of Prison Camp Internees and of the raped women from Visegrad and Foca will be travelling directly from Bosnia and Herzegovina accompanied by the Sarajevo and Srebrenica Section of the STP.
They expect from the court that justice will at last be done. The STP hopes that this will bring the reunification of divided Bosnia one step closer.
Karadzic will now have to answer for the atrocities committed by his troops like massacres, bombardments of enclosed towns, mass rape and expulsion.
This must also mean however that the victims of his crimes receive compensation as far as this is possible, demanded the President of the STP International, Tilman Zülch. “Expelled peoples must be able to return at last and the so-called ethnic cleansing caused by the Republika Srpska must be removed.” This is the precondition for a sustainable reconciliation of the ethnic groups.
Since Europe did nothing to prevent the genocide in its midst – for the first time since 1945 against a non-Christian ethnic group — its governments, parties and its institutions must stand by the survivors — the refugees scattered all over the world, the survivors of the Serb concentration and rape camps and the mothers’ organisations of Srebrenica, demands the STP.
“The judges must not allow Karadzic to make a mockery of the courtroom”, said Zülch in the light of the refusal of the accused to appear before court because he has said that he had not had enough time to prepare himself for the trial. “A man who had four years to instigate and carry out a large number of crimes against humanity, a man who bears the responsibility for the destruction of 1,178 mosques and madrasas, a man who had six UN protected zones bombed and starved — this man should be in a position to acquaint himself with the reports on these crimes within one year.”
Tilman Zülch can be reached at the vigil at tel. ++49 (0)151 153 09 888.
The vigil will be held at Johan de Wittlaan.
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Jasna Causevic
Referat Südosteuropa
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker e.V. (GfbV)
Geiststr. 7
D – 37073 Göttingen
Tel. 0049 (0)551 49906 -16
Fax 0049 (0)551 58028
E-Mail j.causevic@gfbv.de
Internet www.gfbv.de
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