SARAJEVO, May 22 (Hina) - The Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal (ICTY) dismissed as completely unfounded accusations by some Bosniak (Muslim) associations that it plea bargained with some indictees.
SARAJEVO, May 22 (Hina) - The Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal
(ICTY) dismissed as completely unfounded accusations by some
Bosniak (Muslim) associations that it plea bargained with some
indictees. #L#
A spokesman for the ICTY office in Sarajevo, Refik Hodzic, said
Thursday that criticisms about plea bargains with a former Bosnian
Serb army officer, Dragan Obrenovic, indicted for war crimes in
Srebrenica, and Momir Nikolic were the result of ignorance about
the legal system under which the tribunal functioned, as well as a
lack of understanding of the enormous importance of the said
indictees admitting to complicity to commit massacre against
Srebrenica Bosniaks.
An association called "Women of Srebrenica" and some Sarajevo media
have denounced the ICTY's plea bargaining with the indictees,
believing that such actions were aimed at diminishing
responsibility for the crime at Srebrenica.
"Dragan Obrenovic's, and previously Momir Nikolic's, admission is
the basis for establishing the end truth about what happened in
Srebrenica," Hodzic said, adding that after the two indictees'
admission, nobody would be able to falsify the truth about July 1995
events in Srebrenica any more, as the Republika Srpska government
had tried to do last year.
In its report, which all international and local officials said was
shameful, Republika Srpska's government completely relativised
the responsibility for war crimes and reduced the number of victims
to only several hundreds.
(hina) lml sb