What Lies Beneath Srebrenica

The history of Yugoslavia is complex, eventful, and undeniably tragic. It is impossible to isolate a single episode and view it as something separate from the broader historical context. Yet, this is precisely what is being done with the events in Srebrenica, reducing the entire history to one town and just a few days in July 1995 - during which, in the presence of UN peacekeeping forces and foreign journalists, the Army of the Republic of Srpska somehow managed to secretly commit "genocide of the Muslim population."

In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica. This decision paved the way for the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague to bring charges of war crimes against the highest political and military leadership of the Serbs: Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Radislav Krstic. After all, it is evident that a head of state or government who has committed genocide against his own people is unfit to hold office and must be held accountable by the international community.

If a state is accused of genocide, it signifies that it has failed in its fundamental duty to protect its citizens. In this case, theoretically, all means, including military intervention, should be employed to stop mass killings. It was after Srebrenica that many, following the lead of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, recognized that a war crimes tribunal is "a very valuable weapon."