Below, specific reports are given documenting the refusal of the French contingent of the NATO (IFOR, SFOR) troops in Bosnia to arrest indicted war-criminals, despite the fact that they are mandated by the Dayton accords to arrest any war-criminals they encounter. Before giving the reports, we offer the following comment by Jordan Paust, which shows that such refusal by French forces to carry out their mandate, amounts to more than post-facto complicity in the crimes documented in the International Tribunal indictments:
Why stop at moral complicity? Under Geneva law, there is a legal obligation "to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed...grave breaches" and to initiate prosecution or extradite (or render to an ICT). Failure to do so is a violation of the law of war. "Every violation of the law of war is a war crime." U.S. FM 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare 178, para. 499 (1956). Such a failure also involves a violation of common art. 1. Dereliction of duty is an appropriate legal phrase with respect to individual responsibility. See also Paust, Bassiouni, et al., International Criminal Law 34-41, 60-61, 74-80 (1996) (more generally, customary law of war also creates duty to initiate prosecution or to extradite persons reasonably accused of any war crime). Further, responsibility may be possible for refusals to comply with Art. 29 of the Statute of the ICT (resting on U.N. Charter competencies and obligations under Arts. 35, 39, 41-43, 48-49).
This shocking story appeared in the London Times about the extent to which French soldiers in Foca were in the presence of Gojko Jankovic, indicted by the Yugoslavia Tribunal for rape and slavery. Why didn't the French soldiers arrest Jankovic during this encounter, which occurred during normal operations? "We are not competent to make arrests. We are an army, not the police."
Even under the limited interpretation of IFOR's mandate to detain indicted war criminals it encounters, this should have resulted in an arrest. It did not.
Jankovic's response to the charges against him? "I am such a man that I can have any woman I want, and my wife is good looking."
As the Times' reporters put it, "There was a smile on the face of Gojko Jankovic last week as he swaggered into a cafe in Foca, a town in southeast Bosnia. He has been accused of mass rape by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands. But he knows his life of ease is in little danger of being interrupted. ... Now he is one of Foca's richest men. He has every reason to smile."
Tom Warrick
Coalition for International Justice
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by Gordana and Jon Swain
THERE was a smile on the face of Gojko Jankovic last week as he swaggered into a cafe in Foca, a town in southeast Bosnia. He has been accused of mass rape by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands. But he knows his life of ease is in little danger of being interrupted.
French soldiers from IFOR, the Nato-led peacekeeping force, leant against a nearby wall smoking cigarettes and paying him no attention as Jankovic, accompanied by his bodyguards, casually ordered a drink.
When it was pointed out to them that this thick-set man of 41 with a gold chain round his neck was wanted for war crimes and should be arrested in accordance with Ifor's mandate in Bosnia, they gave a Gallic shrug. "We are not competent to make arrests," said one. "We are an army, not the police."
IFOR's orders to its soldiers are to apprehend those indicted for war crimes if they encounter them in the course of their duties. But time and again since they came to Bosnia six months ago, the Nato troops have looked the other way when they come across wanted men.
Nor does Jankovic expect anyone else to try to arrest him. "Blood will be shed if they try anything," he warned. "I go nowhere without my bodyguards."
Jankovic denies taking part in any atrocities. "We rose in defense of our Serb population" is how he puts it. But his smile did not always seem so harmless. Four years ago, it is alleged, he was a leading figure in some of the most sadistic violence to haunt this corner of Bosnia. He was a sub-commander of the Bosnian Serb military police and a paramilitary leader in Foca.
The rape of Muslim women was so systematic and widespread that United Nations experts investigating atrocities in former Yugoslavia are convinced it was part of a premeditated policy that went hand in hand with the mass slaughter designed to rid entire areas of the country of their historic Muslim population.
The Hague tribunal last month accused Jankovic and seven fellow Bosnian Serbs, including Dragan Gagovic, the local chief of police, of raping and torturing Muslim women and children, some as young as 12, in a brutal assault on Foca. The indictment is the first in history to focus on rape as a crime against humanity rather than an incidental atrocity of war.
The tribunal's indictment highlights the pitiful story of one 15-year-old girl who from July 1992 to February 1993 was said to have been a sexual slave of the accused before being sold to two soldiers from Montenegro for £200.
The girl's terror began after she was evicted from her home and transferred to the sports hall that had been converted into a detention centre. There she was repeatedly raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers over a period of two weeks. She was later transferred to an empty house which was run as a brothel and where girls as young as 12 were hideously treated by different men for their amusement.
According to the indictment, the sexual atrocities were so terrible that many suffered permanent gynaecological harm as well as psychological and emotional damage as they find themselves reliving their horrors every day.
As he sipped his drink last week, Jankovic denied having ever entered the sports hall or committing rapes, and said he would gladly go to the Hague to answer the charges against him were it not for bad health. "I am such a man that I can have any woman I want, and my wife is good looking," he said.
The conflict has created an unsavoury new elite of war profiteers. It is hardly a surprise that many of them are alleged to have been involved in war crimes. Jankovic, for example, was a small trader in peacetime. Now he is one of Foca's richest men. He has every reason to smile.
In August, Stankovic walked into IPTF police station near Sarajevo, but IPTF did not recognize his name. Local police stopped him, asked to see his driver's licence, recognized his name, ordered him to come to a police station, whereupon he fled -- later to file a complaint with the IPTF alleging that the Bosnian police fired shots at his car.
Tom Warrick
Coalition for International Justice
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Fri, 8 Nov 1996
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Reuter) - Bosnian Serb authorities have so far failed to remove at least five indicted war criminals from their jobs as policemen despite repeated demands from international monitors, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.
Four of the war crimes suspects work as policemen in northwest Bosnia, where they are accused of having run notorious detention camps at the start of the war in 1992. A fifth suspect, Radovan Stankovic, was working as a Serb policeman as of August and there was no indication he had stepped down since, Aleksandar Ivanko, spokesman for the International Police Task Force (IPTF), told reporters.
The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia has indicted the four policemen in the northwest for committing atrocities against civilian prisoners at detention camps early in the Bosnian war.
The tribunal has charged Stankovic with enslaving Muslim women as prostitutes, gang rape and other crimes in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca. International police confirmed that Stankovic was working for Serb police in the Foca area, Ivanko said. IPTF officials planned to hold talks Saturday with Bosnian Serb police over Stankovic's status.
International police officials also would press for the sacking and extradition of all five suspects at a meeting next week with the Serb interior minister, Ivanko said. ``The commissioner of the IPTF is organizing a meeting for next week and will raise the issue of the five indicted war criminals,'' he said.
Stankovic walked into an international police station near Sarajevo in August but IPTF officers did not recognize his name as one of the 75 suspects indicted by the U.N. tribunal, Ivanko said.
Stankovic was driving through Sarajevo, which lies in Muslim-Croat federation territory, when local police stopped him and asked to see his driver's licence. After recognizing his name, police ordered Stankovic to come to a police station. But Stankovic ``got scared, hit the gas pedal and fled,'' according to an international police report obtained by Reuters.
Stankovic alleged the Bosnian police fired shots at his car as he drove away and later filed a complaint about the incident with the IPTF. The Bosnians Serbs have balked at demands to hand over indicted war criminals, insisting their constitution rules out extradition.
The United States has warned Serb as well as Croat officials that refusing to cooperate with the U.N. tribunal would cost them post-war reconstruction aid from the West and that they risked reimposition of sanctions.
The IPTF last week asked Serb interior minister, Dragan Kijac, to provide a list of all police officers in Bosnia's Serb republic to allow international monitors to check the list against those indicted for war crimes, Ivanko said.
But Kijac has so far failed to produce the list, he said. Ivanko could not confirm reports that two other war crimes suspects were working for Serb authorities in Bosanski Samac.
The Boston Globe reported this month that Blagoje Simic, charged with committing atrocities in the town, was serving as the mayor of Bosanski Samac and another suspect, Stevan Todorovic, was working as deputy chief in the regional state security office.