Serge Brammertz speaking |
The Hague Tribunal, with its verdicts, wrote a large part of the history of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, showed that carried out its task independently, impartially and regardless of nationality and religion, guided only by the evidence and the law, Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told Vecernje Novosti on the occasion of the court's closure.
"I think justice is done through actions, but I always say that this issue needs to be submitted to the victims," added Brammertz.
He says he is satisfied with the work of the prosecution and the Tribunal's results for the last 24 years of work.Regarding the question why more Serbs have been convicted, he replies that they fought in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and that "Serbian authorities have done terrible ethnic cleansing in all those places."
"If this basic fact is accepted, then it is not surprising that the Tribunal condemned more Serbs. If this fact is not accepted, which probably happens with the Serbian authorities and the public, then it really has to do with refusing to accept the truth," Brammer stressed, reports Sputnik.
Brammertz says that in some cases found that Serbian leaders were part of a joint criminal enterprise for crimes committed in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, including Serbian officials such as Slobodan Milosevic and Nikola Sainovic.
Asked whether the nations of the former Yugoslavia after the judgments are closer to or far from reconciliation, Brammertz said: "Trials have the effect that political leaders and the media choose to give. If, after judgments, leaders decide to deepen divisions and increase tensions, then they are responsible for these consequences. Although I do not think the Tribunal's work leads directly to reconciliation, I think defining responsibility is a precondition for reconciliation."