The Hague Tribunal’s president Theodor Meron said the UN had failed by not setting up a reparations fund but defended his court’s record after a series of controversial acquittals.
“It is not right that the United Nations did not create some kind of a fund for reparations, for victims of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia,” judge Meron told BIRN in The Hague.
“Više puta smo tražili od Vijeća sigurnosti UN-a da učini nešto i osnuje fond. Ništa nismo postigli”, kazao je on.
Meron, predsjednik Međunarodnog krivičnog suda za bivšu Jugoslaviju (MKSJ), kojeg je osnovao UN, izjavio je da je procesuiranje osumnjičenih za ratne zločine bio dobar početak, ali da se mora uraditi više.
“Mislim da žrtve koje su izgubile ruku, nogu ili propatile na neki drugi način, kojima je spaljena kuća, imaju pravo na nekakvo obeštećenje”, objasnio je on.
Kritičari suda tvrde da bi sporne oslobađajuće presude Haškog tribunala izrečene prošle godine u postupcima protiv hrvatskih generala Ante Gotovine i Mladena Markača, bivšeg zapovjednika Oslobodilačke vojske Kosova (OVK) Ramuša Haradinaja, generala Vojske Jugoslavije (VJ) Momčila Perišića i nekadašnjih šefova srbijanske tajne službe Jovice Stanišića i Franka Simatovića mogle negativno utjecati na pomirenje u bivšoj Jugoslaviji.
“Da sam žrtva, i ja bih bio veoma nezadovoljan u slučaju oslobađajućih presuda”, priznao je Meron.
On je rekao da razumije bol koju takve presude nanose porodicama žrtava zato što je djetinjstvo proveo u logoru u okupiranoj Poljskoj.
“Strašno sam tužan kada čujem da je neka udruga porodica žrtava nezadovoljna”, dodao je.
Međutim, istakao je Meron, “ne smijemo smetnuti s uma da suci moraju donositi odluke prema zakonu i dokazima, da na njihovu odluku ne smije utjecati ništa drugo”.
On je uvjeren da će vremenom “ljudi uvidjeti da ne činimo samo dobar, nego sjajan posao”.
Sudac je istakao da je “jedan od velikih doprinosa Tribunala individualiziranje krivice”.
“Kada su u povijesti činjeni zločini, oni bi bili pripisivani čitavim narodima”, kazao je Meron.
“Mi u Tribunalu nikad ne držimo neku zajednicu metom istrage ili krivice. Mi individualiziramo krivicu i tako sprječavamo da zločini prerastu u nove ratove zato što zemlje žele da se svete jedne drugima”, rekao je on.
Meron je naveo da će MKSJ ostaviti za sobom jako nasljeđe kada okonča svoj rad.
“Nemam nikakvu sumnju u to da će naslijeđe koje ćemo ostaviti za sobom nešto apsolutno veličanstveno. Veoma sam ponosit na ono što smo uradili”, kazao je on.
Sudac je istakao da je MKSJ jedini međunarodni sud među osnovanima u posljednje dvije decenije, koji je pokrenuo postupak protiv svih optuženih – ukupno 161 osumnjičenih za ratne zločine.
To pokazuje, objasnio je Meron, da smo “vremenom dobili podršku različitih zemalja bivše Jugoslavije, jer bez njihove suradnje, optuženi nikada ne bi bili isporučeni u Haag”.
“Pokazali smo da je moguće voditi veoma složena suđenja, sa veoma velikom količinom dokaza, istovremeno primjenjujući čitav niz odgovarajućih postupaka, zaštita i pravila pravičnog suđenja”, zaključio je predsjednik Tribunala.
Boris Pavelić BIRN Hag
The Hague Tribunal’s president Theodor Meron said the UN had failed by not setting up a reparations fund but defended his court’s record after a series of controversial acquittals. “It is not right that the United Nations did not create some kind of a fund for reparations, for victims of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia,” judge Meron told BIRN in The Hague.
“We appealed repeatedly [to the UN Security Council] to take the lead and create something. We did not get anywhere,” he said.
Meron, the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, a court created by the UN, said that dealing with prosecuting war crimes suspects was a good starting point, but more needed to be done.
“I think that victims, who lost a hand, or a leg, or suffered otherwise, or their house was burned, they should be entitled to some kind of reparation,” he said.
Critics have argued that the controversial acquittals of several high-profile war crimes suspects by the ICTY over the past year including Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, Kosovo Liberation Army commander Ramush Haradinaj, Yugoslav general Momcilo Perisic and Serbian security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic could hinder the possibility of reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.
Meron acknowledged that “if I were a victim, I would too be very unhappy when there was an acquittal”.
He said that he understood the grief that such acquittals caused to families of victims because he spent his childhood in a labour camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
“I am terribly sad when I hear that an association of victims is unhappy,” he said.
However, he pointed out, “we have to remember that judges have to decide by the law and by the evidence, that they cannot take any other considerations into account”.
He insisted that he was confident that over time, “people will recognise that we are not only doing a good job, we are doing a great job”.
He suggested that “one of the great contributions made by the Tribunal” was the individualisation of guilt.
“Historically when crimes were committed, the crime would be attributed to the entire nation,” Meron said.
“We [the ICTY] never consider a community as a target of investigations or blame. We individualise guilt and thus we prevent… the situation that crimes lead to more wars because countries want vengeance against each other,” he said.
Meron argued that the ICTY would leave behind a strong legacy when it ultimately closes.
“There is no question in my mind that the legacy that we will leave behind… is something which is absolutely tremendous. I am very proud of what we have done,” he said.
He said that ICTY was the only international court among those established over the last two decades which has brought prosecutions against all its indictees – a total of 161 war crimes suspects.
This indicated, Meron said “that over time we gained the support of the various states in the former Yugoslavia, because without cooperation, we would never have had the indictees delivered up to The Hague”.
“We have shown that it is possible to conduct very complex trials with very big volumes of evidence in a regular way, while applying the entire list of due processes, protections and rules of fairness,” the ICTY president said.
Boris Pavelic BIRN The Hague
