Section f Case study

22. Crimes against humanity.

Background information

The events which are the subject of this case concern the Muslim-Croat conflict of 1992-1993 which took place in central Bosnia during the war of dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. The Croat-Bosniak war is often referred to as the war in a war because it was part of the larger Bosnian War. The war came about as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from Yugoslavia in 1991, the multiethnic Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44 per cent), Orthodox Serbs (31 per cent) and Catholic Croats (17 per cent), passed a referendum for independence on February 29, 1992. This was rejected by Bosnian Serb political representatives, who had boycotted the referendum and established their own republic of Republika Srpska. Following the declaration of independence, Bosnian Serb forces, supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attacked the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure Serbian territory and war soon broke out across Bosnia, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population, especially in Eastern Bosnia. It was principally a territorial conflict, initially between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was largely though not exclusively composed of Bosniaks, and Bosnian Croat forces on the one side, and Bosnian Serb forces on the other. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War - cite_note-ICTY:_Naletili.C4.87_and_Martinovi.C4.87_verdict_-_A._Historical_background-4 The Serb and Croat political leadership agreed on a partition of Bosnia with the Karađorđevo and Graz agreements, resulting in the Croats forces turning on the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croat-Bosniak war. The war was characterized by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing, systematic mass rape and genocide. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo, Omarska camp and the Srebrenica massacre would come to typify the conflict.

The Muslim-Croat conflict ended only with the signing of the Washington Agreement on 2 March 1994, which created the Muslim-Croat Federation, an entity which exists to this day in the form of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton Peace.

Problem

On 16 April 1993, in a matter of few hours, some 116 inhabitants, including women and children, of Ahmisi (hereinafter A), a small village in central Bosnia, were killed and about 24 were wounded; 169 houses and two mosques were destroyed. The victims were Muslim civilians. This was not a combat operation. Rather, it was a well-planned and well-organized killing of civilian members of an ethnic group, the Muslims, by the military of another ethnic group, the Croats. The primary purpose of the massacre was to expel the Muslims from the village, by killing many of them, by burning their houses and their livestock, and by illegally detaining and deporting the survivors to another area.

Task

You are representatives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Work in groups of 3 or 4 and decide the legal position of the event which took place on 16 April 1993 in small village in central Bosnia under International Humanitarian Law.

Appoint people to act as counsel for Muslims and counsel for Croats. The other members of the class will act as judges or arbitrators.

Prepare your role(s) carefully.

Hold the moot. Decide who has won the war and deliver judgment.

Notes: moot – навчальний судовий процес

Brainstorming session

1. When did the Muslim-Croat conflict take place?

2. Who was involved in this conflict?

3. What does the term “ethnic cleansing” mean?

4. What happened on 16 April 1993?

5. Who were the victims of this conflict?

6. What kind of operation was it?

7. What was the purpose of this conflict?

8. When did the Muslim-Croat conflict end?

9. What happened after signing of the Washington Agreement on 2 March 1994?