Who Absolved The Dutch For Their War Crimes At Srebrenica???

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Who Absolved The Dutch For Their War Crimes At Srebrenica???

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My apologies for “being asleep at the switch” while reading our author’s Chapter 11 (pp. 204-216).

Because, like so many other issues prompted by her book, she is talking about one thing WHILE VIRTUALLY IGNORING ANOTHER “ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.”

The United Nations in 1993 during the Bosnian War declared the Bosnian town of Srebrenica to be a “safe area” under U.N. Protection.

A U.N. Peace Keeping Force of Dutch soldiers voluntarily stood aside in July 1995 and permitted the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by the Bosnian Serb Army.

In 2004, the massacre was held to constitute “genocide” by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. The ruling of “genocide” was upheld in 2007 by the International Court of Justice at the Hague (the International Court of Justice is the U.N.’s Supreme Court).

Virtually all of Chapter 11 involves the bizarre case of Drazen Erdemovic, the only person ever prosecuted for the Srebrenica Massacre.

He was a member of the Bosnian Serb Army that conducted the massacre.

When the order was given to kill the 8,000-plus Muslims, Erdemovic protested but was told that if he did not participate, he himself would be shot immediately. Because of concern for what would then happen to his wife and children, he obeyed the order.

Chapter 11 reports that Erdemovic was so conscience-stricken that he turned himself in and was prosecuted in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The only evidence against Erdemovic was his conscience-stricken confession.

Interestingly, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia decided by a 3-2 vote to apply the English-American Common Law Rule that killing under threat of being killed is NOT a defense, even though the Napoleonic Code which is the basis for the legal systems of virtually all European continental countries, DOES RECOGNIZE as a defense to homicide the threat of being killed.

So under his own Yugoslavian Law, Erdemovic was innocent.

But no matter!!!

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia needed a scape goat. And Erdemovic had volunteered for that role.

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The Elephant in the Room

It only occurred during yesterday’s weekly multi-hour gabfest that I have had with George Kunath (a former NYC partner) for the last 29.5 years, that ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF THE U.N. PEACE KEEPING FORCE who stood aside and permitted the massacre were guilty of the “genocide” that the U.N.’s courts found the massacre to constitute.

So why weren’t they prosecuted???

Not just their commanding officer!!!

But every member of that Dutch Army Force whose duty, as U.N. Peace Keepers, was to protect the Muslims and prevent the “genocide”!!!

After all, every member of that Dutch Army Force, in stepping aside, obeyed an ILLEGAL ORDER just like Erdemovic did!!!

And the members of Dutch Peace Keepers were NOT even under threat of death to obey the illegal order!!!

And why, I wondered, had our author Rosa Brooks failed to mention this???

It turns out she did in one small paragraph on p. 215 --

“Naturally, none of the Dutch U.N. peacekeepers were ever brought up on criminal charges for their failure to protect the civilians they were pledged to protect, and no high-ranking U.N. officials were charged as accomplices in the murder of the thousands who died, and none of the Security Council powers who gave the U.N. leaders their marching orders will ever be called to account in a court of law.”

It would appear that the word “Naturally” with which Rosa Brooks began her brief paragraph was meant as sarcasm.

Nevertheless, Rosa Brooks SHOULD HAVE DOUBLED the length of her Chapter 11 to discuss why each of the Dutch U.N. peacekeepers was guilty as an "Accessory Before the Fact" of “genocide.” Ditto for the U.N. officials, in addition to calling them out by name.

IN ADDITION, Rosa Brooks’ brief paragraph, in noting these egregious failures to prosecute, FAILS TO NAME THE PROSECUTORS who decided NOT to prosecute the Dutch U.N. peacekeepers and NOT to prosecute any U.N. officials.

And fails to discuss whether their decision NOT to prosecute should itself be viewed as criminal.

Which would make an interesting “Law School 101” exam question.

The non-humble opinion of Yours Truly???

In theory, there should be NO REASON why a decision NOT to prosecute should not make the prosecutor an “Accessory After The Fact” which makes the Prosecutor guilty of the “genocide” that s/he has refused to prosecute!!!

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Apology

However, as noted above, Yours Truly was “asleep at the switch” when he read Chapter 11 and, during yesterday’s weekly multi-hour gabfest described above, thought our author Rosa Brooks had completely ignored the really important issues regarding Srebrenica of the guilt of the Dutch U.N. Peace Keepers and the Prosecutors!!!

When she did in fact have that one brief paragraph, however woefully inadequate it in fact was!!!

And for overlooking her brief paragraph, I apologize.

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