ZAGREB, March 6 (Hina) - Zagreb Law School professor Ivo Josipovic, an expert in international criminal law, has said it is difficult to say at present what the chances are of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic being
convicted or acquitted of genocide charges before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
ZAGREB, March 6 (Hina) - Zagreb Law School professor Ivo Josipovic, an
expert in international criminal law, has said it is difficult to say
at present what the chances are of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic being convicted or acquitted of genocide charges before the
war crimes tribunal in The Hague.#L#
Josipovic spoke to Hina on Saturday. Commenting on the request of the
Hague tribunal's amici curiae that Milosevic be acquitted of the two
gravest charges -- genocide and aiding and abetting genocide during
the 1992-5 Bosnian war -- due to lack of evidence, he said one could
hardly expect direct proof of genocide and that the tribunal should
rely on circumstantial evidence.
"Establishing facts, even guilt, on the basis of circumstantial
evidence need not be of poor quality. It happens quite often in
'ordinary' trials. Besides, even if there is no evidence of genocide,
Milosevic is charged with numerous other very grave crimes and it is
likely that, if convicted of even one, he will be given a serious
sentence, maybe the most serious one, lifetime imprisonment."
Asked how the Milosevic sentence would affect future genocide trials,
including that of Saddam Hussein, Josipovic said the effect of the
Milosevic trial would be positive if it was carried through lege artis
and justly, even if there was an acquittal for the genocide charge.
"If the tribunal fails to find evidence of genocide it must acquit
Milosevic, like everyone else. I stress once again that a fair and
just trial is more important than a conviction at any cost. Milosevic,
like any other defendant in the democratic community, is entitled to a
defence and the presumption of innocence, and it is up to the
prosecutor to prove guilt."
Josipovic said that personally he did not expect a radical change in
the interpretation of genocide to be forthcoming, at least not in the
practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY).
He went on to say that despite the fact that a more liberal
interpretation of genocide was slowly making its way through in
literature, the Genocide Convention, the statutes and legal practice
of international criminal courts preferred the rather strict
interpretation of genocide as a crime intended to wholly or partly
destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious community.
Asked how Milosevic's acquittal of genocide might affect the
complaints Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia filed against the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia before the International Court of Justice,
Josipovic said that a conviction for genocide would benefit Croatia's
and Bosnia's positions before the court. He added that the two
countries could win the disputes even if Milosevic was not convicted
of genocide.
"Without wishing to prejudge the outcome of those disputes, I would
say that both Bosnia and Croatia prepared very serious evidence for
their complaints."
"The Srebrenica massacre is probably the most dramatic event from the
past war. If there is a crime with the traits of genocide, that is
certainly and foremost Srebrenica. That's why I believe that such a
state of affairs will be appropriately reflected in ICTY verdicts,"
Josipovic said.
(Hina) ha sb