How Bosnia Changed Paddy

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-618
Author(s):  
Jonathan May
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Foreign Country ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Political Evolution ◽  
Bosnian War ◽  
Over Time

As parliamentarian during the Bosnian war, witness at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and finally as politician with considerable executive power in the role of High Representative, the length and multifaceted nature of Paddy Ashdown’s interaction with Bosnia and Herzegovina is atypical. This rarity provides a unique opportunity to examine the factors that influence a politician’s views and understanding of a foreign country and examine how and why they oscillate and develop over time. By first identifying the preconceptions and misjudgements which Ashdown entered the realm of the Bosnian war with in 1992, this paper examines the aforementioned stages in Ashdown’s interactions with the country and subsequently provides a political evolution of his views from 1991 to 2006.

Emotions, De/Attachment, and the Digital Archive: Reading Violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

2021 ◽  
pp. 030582982110330
Author(s):  
Caitlin Biddolph
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Digital Archives ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Emotional Process ◽  
Affective Experiences

The study of global politics is not an exercise in objectivity and rationality, but one that is embodied, personal, and deeply affective. Feminist scholarship both within and outside of International Relations (IR) have pioneered discussions of embracing our affective experiences as researchers, as well as maintaining ethical commitments to research participants and collaborators. In addition to feminist contributions, the emotional turn in IR has seen the emergence of vibrant scholarship exploring the role of emotions in sites and processes of global politics, as well as the role of emotions in the research process. In this article, I aim to contribute to this growing body of scholarship by speaking to these and other questions that explore the role of emotions in researchers’ engagement with their work. In particular, I draw on and interrogate my own emotional entanglements with the digital archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The goal of this article is to provide insights into the emotional process of reading and interpreting testimonies of violence, and to illuminate ethical concerns that arise – particularly as an ‘outsider’ – when reading and representing trauma in my research.

The (Lack of) Impact of the ICTY on the Public Memory of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2020 ◽  
pp. 559-570
Author(s):  
Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Post War

This chapter tackles relations between facts established at the Tribunal and acknowledgement of these in the public domain of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), where three ethnically defined and mutually contesting interpretations dominate the public forum. Examining how this problem unfolds, this chapter follows the development of the public memory about the war. It intersects with the relevant International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) jurisprudence, aiming to detect potential changes in the dominant narrative. It analyses public debates whether the war was a product of Serbian aggression or a civil war within Bosnia; whether ‘ethnic cleansing’ was pre-planned by the Serbian side or an inevitable consequence of the war (examined through the Prijedor case); whether genocide was the overall aim of the Serbian side or whether it took place only in Srebrenica; and whether the Croatian side was a defender of, or aggressor in BiH (examined through the Ahmići case).

scholarly journals Traumatized War Criminal? Documenting the Case of Esad Landžo

2020 ◽  
pp. 105756772094078
Author(s):  
Olivera Simic
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
Serious Injury ◽  
Main Protagonist

Perpetrators’ voices have been traditionally ignored in the transitional justice field and beyond. Esad Landžo was only 19 when he committed the crimes of willful killing, torturing, and causing serious injury to the detainees of notorious Čelebići camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2001, Landžo was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the crimes he committed in 1992. After serving two thirds of his sentence in 2006 and settling in Finland, Landžo and the Danish filmmaker, Lars Feldballe Petersen, embarked on the project of making a documentary movie about Landžo’s traumatic memories, remorse, and regret. Landžo had a strong urge to extend his apology to each victim individually and in 2015 went to Čelebići to meet his former detainees. This article will build on a scarce conversation in scholarly, and legal discourse, as to why psychological trauma is considered to be an experience that belongs to victims. It will analyze difficult and untold perpetrators’ experiences of criminal acts and explore whether in these experiences there is potential for inner and group understanding. This article draws on the author’s interviews with Landžo, the main protagonist in the movie The Unforgiven: A War’s Criminal Remorse, a film that documents the extraordinary story of Landžo: from his denial to redemption.

Some Kind of Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Orentlicher
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Justice ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
Over Time

Created in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has operated longer than any war crimes tribunal in history. It thus offers a singularly important case study of how and why the local impact of an international criminal tribunal (ICT) evolves over time; the circumstances in which international justice can advance the normative, reparative, and other aims of transitional justice; and, more generally, the goals ICTs are either well-suited or unlikely to advance. The book explores the ICTY’s impact in Serbia, whose wartime leader plunged the former Yugoslavia into vicious ethnic conflict, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which experienced searing atrocities culminating in the Srebrenica genocide, over the life of the Tribunal. It focuses on the Tribunal’s impact in three spheres: victims’ experience of justice; official, elite, and community discourses about wartime atrocities, as well as official gestures of acknowledgment; and domestic accountability processes, including the work of a hybrid court in Bosnia. While highlighting the perspectives of Bosnians and Serbians interviewed by the author, the book incorporates a rich body of interdisciplinary research to deepen their insights.

The translation of evidence at the ICTY

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hepburn
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Translation Strategies

The article examines the role of translators at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and how their translations of evidentiary documents are used in trials. Drawing on theoretical studies and practical examples, it rejects the notion that the meaning of source documents can ever be conveyed with complete fidelity and accuracy but shows how this problem is resolved by adopting flexible translation strategies and enabling parties to check translations against the originals at every stage of proceedings. This system, which evolved over a period of many years, is contrasted with the often haphazard organization of translation at the Nuremberg Tribunal.

scholarly journals Relativising Atrocity Crimes: The Message of Unconditional Early Release of Perpetrators Convicted by the ICTY (1998 – 2018)

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-96
Author(s):  
Priyamvada Yarnell
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Early Release ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
Atrocity Crimes

Abstract Despite being found guilty of egregious acts, crimes against humanity and war crimes, 54 of the 90 perpetrators sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (icty) were granted unconditional early release (uer). This article argues that uer did a disservice to two principal expressive purposes of punishment - moral condemnation of the crimes and the overall norm projected by the icty, the ‘universal repugnance of group-based killing’. Fundamentally, punishment of perpetrators signifies the inherent worth of victims. Interviews with key stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina revealed that the interviewees largely concurred with authors who posit that punitive justice conveys valuable messages to audiences. This article complements expressivist theories by demonstrating the extent to which expressivism was negated as perpetrators were granted uer. Finally, it proposes how early release in future tribunals and courts might be tailored to counter the negation of international criminal justice’s expressive value.

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