Table Of ContentSome Kind of Justice
Some Kind of Justice
The ICTY’s Impact in Bosnia and Serbia
D O
iane rentlicher
1
Some Kind of Justice. Diane Orentlicher.
© Diane Orentlicher 2018. Published 2018 by Oxford University Press.
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© Diane Orentlicher 2018
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Orentlicher, Diane, author.
Title: Some kind of justice : the ICTY’s impact in Bosnia and Serbia / Diane Orentlicher.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048647 | ISBN 9780190882273 ((hardback) : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious
Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former
Yugoslavia since 1991. | War crime trials—Yugoslavia. | War crime trials—Serbia. | War crime
trials—Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Classification: LCC KZ1203.A12 O74 2018 | DDC 341.6/90268—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048647
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For Mort
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xvii
1. Introduction 1
Taking Its Shape from the Shore It Meets 3
Benchmarks for Assessing Impact 4
Assessing Impact: Recurring Questions 6
Satisfying and Disappointing the Expectations of Victims 8
Social Transformation: Dispelling Denial and Fostering
Acknowledgment 9
Catalyzing Domestic Prosecutions 10
PART ONE The Landscape of Justice: Overview of the ICTY’s Relationship
with Bosnia and Serbia
2. Forged in War: Bosnia’s Relationship with the ICTY 15
I. Creating a Court in the Crucible of War 16
A. Reactions to the Council’s Action 20
B. The Wartime Court: Early Indictments of Low- Level Perpetrators 27
C. Justice and Peace: Preventing Amnesty at Dayton 31
II. The Aftermath of War 34
A. IFOR’s Policy of Avoidance 34
B. The OTP Forces NATO’s Hand 41
III. Postwar Political Context: Dayton’s Legacy 45
A. Architecture of Division and Dysfunction 45
1. Ethnic Entities 47
2. Entity Voting and Minority Veto 48
3. The High Representative 49
IV. Concluding Observations 56
3. Coerced Cooperation: Serbia’s Relationship with the ICTY 59
I. Defiance during the Milošević Years 61
II. Conflicted Cooperation: The Koštunica- Đinđić Government
(2000– 2003) 63
III. The Aftermath of the Đinđić Assassination 71
IV. The Carrot of European Integration 75
V. Concluding Observations 86
viii Contents
PART TWO Measuring ICTY Success: Local Perspectives
4. Some Kind of Justice: Bosnian Expectations of the ICTY 91
I. “Justice Is Important for Its Own Sake” 94
II. “We Are Here to Say It’s Not Good to Do That” 97
III. Establishing the Truth and Dispelling Denial 99
A. Dispelling Serb Denial 99
B. Fostering Acknowledgment by Each Ethnic Group 102
IV. Reconciliation 103
V. Bearing Witness 107
VI. Preventing Future Crimes 107
VII. Removing War Criminals 110
VIII. Catalyzing Justice at Home 110
IX. Concluding Observations 110
5. Dealing with the Past: Serbian Perspectives on ICTY Success 113
I. Ensuring Prosecution of Atrocious Crimes; Dispelling Impunity 114
II. Removing War Criminals 116
III. Dealing with the Past 118
IV. Reconciliation 121
V. Strengthening the Rule of Law by Catalyzing Domestic War Crimes
Prosecutions 123
PART THREE The Quality of Victims’ Justice
6. The Quality of Justice: Bosnian Assessments 127
I. Broad Patterns in Bosnian Assessments of the ICTY 129
A. Overall Decline in Positive Assessments 129
B. Ethnic Divisions in Overall Assessments of the Tribunal 130
II. The Quality of Justice 134
A. Sentencing Practices 134
1. Sentence Lengths 134
2. Apparent Inconsistency in Sentencing 141
3. Plea Agreements/ Confessions 142
a. Dražen Erdemović 143
b. Biljana Plavšić 145
c. Other Confessions 149
B. Length and Complexity of ICTY Proceedings 153
1. The Trial without End: Slobodan Milošević 154
2. The Heavy Weight of Lengthening Time 157
C. The Collateral Damage of Self- Representation 159
D. The Unindicted 163
E. Removing Dangerous Individuals 164
F. Symbolically Resonant Judgments 165
1. Calling a Massacre by Its Proper Name 165
2. Absence of Genocide Convictions outside the Context
of Srebrenica 167
3. Gender Jurisprudence 170
G. Beyond Individual Judgments 172
Contents ix
H. Bearing Witness 173
I. “This Is a Political Court” 175
1. Nondisclosure of Evidence in the Milošević Case 175
2. Controversial Acquittals 178
a. Gotovina and Haradinaj Acquittals 179
b. “Specific Direction” 182
c. Trial Chamber’s Acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj 188
III. Concluding Observations 189
PART FOUR Impact on Acknowledgment
7. Denial and Acknowledgment in Serbia 193
I. Serbian Citizens’ Awareness and Acknowledgment of Crimes
Committed by Serbs and the Role of Serbian Institutions 195
A. What Might We Expect Serbian Citizens to Know and
Acknowledge? 195
B. Awareness of War Crimes as Reflected in Surveys 198
C. Resistance to Reports of Serb Atrocities 207
II. Accounting for Persistently High Levels of Denial 208
A. Serbian Perspectives 208
1. Knowing/ Not Knowing 208
2. Time, Memory, and Context 210
3. Sources of Information about Wartime Conduct: Official
and Elite Discourses 216
4. Vilifying the Hague Tribunal 220
5. Other Sources of Information about War Crimes 225
B. Social Science Perspectives 226
1. Impact of Official Narratives: Heuristics and Framing 227
2. Motivated Reasoning and Social Identity 229
3. Dissonance 231
4. Belief Perseverance/ Confirmation Biases 233
5. A Tipping Point: When Does New Information
Change Minds? 235
III. Is There Less Denial and Greater Acknowledgment than There
Would Have Been without the ICTY? 236
A. Growing Acceptance of Facts concerning Serb Atrocities 237
B. Regression . . . ? 239
IV. Official Acknowledgment 244
A. Early Post- Milošević Years 245
B. Apologies by Subsequent Serbian Governments 246
C. The Parliamentary Declaration on Srebrenica 250
D. Acknowledgment by “Reformed” Nationalists 251
V. A Foundation for Future Acknowledgment? 256
8. Living in Compulsory Denial (Bosnia) 259
I. Bosnian Citizens’ Acceptance of Fundamental Facts of Wartime
Atrocities 260
A. What Should Bosnians Know, Say They Know, and Condemn? 260
