“ICJ ruling – chance for reconciliation”

Washington, Belgrade, Banjaluka, February 28 (Source: B92) - Yesterday’s judgment by the Hague-based ICJ is Serbia’s chance to reconcile its past, Washington says.

State Department’s Spokesperson Sean McCormack said that Washington “wishes to encourage peoples in the region to settle issues of the past and appease historic divisions”.

He added that Serbia, as the judgment clearly implies, was not to blame for the genocide. “Nevertheless, it must explain why it hadn’t dissuaded Bosnian Serbs from committing atrocities in Srebrenica”, McCormack said.

“It is also a message to Serbia to hand over the remaining war crime fugitives to the Hague Tribunal, including former Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladić”, McCormack said.

“We hope that the peoples in the region will see yesterday’s judgment as an opportunity to reconcile with the past and do its best to make reconciliation possible”, the State Department’s spokesperson concluded.
Vojin Dimitrijević, international law professor and a former “ad hoc” ICJ judge, told B92 that no one in Serbia should be carried away with yesterday’s judgment since it has contains grave implications of Serbia’s involvement in the was in Bosnia.

“Serbia has been condemned for its failure to prosecute and punish the genuine perpetrators of wartime massacres, as well as to prevent the act of genocide in Srebrenica”, Dimitrijević said.

Dimitrijević regarded as crucial the fact that demands to achieve the full co-operation with the Hague Tribunal took shape of a legally binding ruling of the International Court of Justice, with the UN Security Council to oversee the implementation of the ruling.

Dimitrijević was quoted as saying that “the UN Security Council can intervene in case the judgment is not being appropriately implemented. Serbia is thus responsible to the UN SC in regards to the measures taken to achieve the full co-operation with The Hague”.
Republic of Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik urged Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić to surrender.

“Our imperative is to see them in the Hague. Let’s take that heavy burden off the people. They are no longer heroes nor they have ever been heroes when they led to the whole is condemned for what they did”, Dodik insisted.

As Dodik said, the whole people pay for the deeds of Karadžić and Mladić. “As long as the two war fugitives refuse to show up and surrender, international community will point the finger at us”, Dodik told the Republic of Srpska television.

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