U.N. Court Acquits 2 Serbs of Crimes in Balkan Wars

[alp227]

Source: New York Times

In one of the most surprising verdicts of its checkered prosecution of war crimes in the Balkans, a United Nations court on Thursday acquitted two close aides of the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, spurning the prosecution’s demand for life sentences for his once all-powerful secret police chief and his deputy.

The judges, voting 2 to 1, said the men, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, had — as charged — formed, directed and paid special secret combat units during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1995. But the judges deemed that they were not criminally liable for crimes committed by these groups.

The acquittal means that the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, after almost two decades of trials involving close to 120 people, has declined to hold any member of the Milosevic regime individually accountable for the many atrocities committed by Serbs and others. The verdict also fails to tie the Serbian state directly to those deeds.

Three months ago, appeals judges at the tribunal unexpectedly acquitted the former chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army of aiding and abetting atrocities by Serbian forces in Bosnia that had also been financed and supplied by Belgrade.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/world/europe/un-court-acquits-2-serbs-of-crimes-in-balkan-wars.html?pagewanted=all

[happyslug]

1. Interesting quote from the article

Eric Gordy, who teaches politics of Eastern Europe at the University of London and follows the trials closely, said that recently the judges had completely changed their standards. “The entire doctrine of command responsibility has been ditched,” he said. “So has the liability for aiding and abetting.”

Is the Court reacting to statements that Bush and Company would also be liable if they maintain Command Responsibility along with Aiding and Abetting? Does the Release by Manning provide evidence of such crimes? i.e. to avoid having to try top American Officials the Court has decided to restrict itself to the actual people who did the war crimes, NOT the people who ordered them into combat and set up a system where such war crimes was going to occur?

I suspect this has more to do with Iraq and Afghanistan then Serbia. Thus the mere knowledge that someone under your command would commit a war crime, is NOT a crime. Thus the various war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan is NOT the responsibility of the leaders that sent in the troops or even lead the troops provided no direct order to commit an actual war crime was given (i.e. mere knowledge that the troops will kill all the men, women and children if the troops are sent into a town, does NOT make the person who ordered the troops into the town guilty of the war crimes the troops do when they kill all the Men, Women and Children).

Sounds more and more like lets protect Bush, and the other US and European leaders who sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.