Michael Sells
"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." /1/
When the International Tribunal on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia indicted Gojko Jankovic him for organizing the systematic rape of Muslim women in Foca, he gained his place in history. His was the first indictment by an International Tribunal in which rape was considered a crime against humanity.
The Times of London reports that French NATO/IFOR troops encountered Jankovic, watched him for a period of time, and, in direct violation of their mandate under the Dayton accords, refused to arrest him. The French troops stated: "We are not competent to make arrests. We are an army, not the police."
The behavior of the French IFOR forces in Foca is consistent with other NATO/IFOR actions and statements. It is a blow to the efforts to make organized rape an internationally recognized crime against humanity.
It also holds historic implications for possible failure of the Dayton accords, future instability in south central Europe, and--as what is happening in Bosnia gradually sinks into the minds of Muslims around the world--for the relationship of NATO governments with the Islamic world.
Terms like "organized rape" are often too general to convey what people like Jankovic were engaged in. Here is a glimpse into the suffering of just one victim from the Times article, based upon the Tribunal indictment:
""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 =A3200.
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.""
NATO/IFOR's refusal to arrest major figures such as Karadzic, Mladic, and Croat terror-leader Ivica Rajic has been usually attributed to one of three factors:
These factors make make no sense in the Jankovic case, and the similar cases involving and other middle-range genocide-enforcers. There would be little chance of casualties in a massive NATO force arresting a small town local criminal already in their hands, and the Gojko Jankovic's of Bosnia offer no tangible help in keeping Serb forces under control. Consistent reports from the RS indicate that there are a great many Serbs who are being repressed by warlords like Jankovic and who would be thrilled to be freed from them. The earlier arrest of General Djukic and Colonel Krsmanovic was a far more provocative act. It caused some howling by Serb officers and yet it led to no attacks against NATO.
The Jankovic organized-rape program in Foca was part of a systematic process of genocide involving interlocking elements:
While Gojko Jankovic is not a major figure (such as Vojislav Maksimovic and Velibor Ostojic, the Republika Srpska leaders who organized the attack on Foca), he is a central player, a key gear in a genocidal program. That program was consistent throughout Southeast Bosnia, from Vlasenica, where Dragan Nikolic played the Jankovic role, to Visegrad, where Milan Lukic from Serbia played the Jankovic role, to Rogatica, Bratunac, Cerska, and of course Srebrenica and Zepa /3/ on a special scale.
In Herzegovina, Croat warlords modeled their assault on Muslim communities in Stolac, Capljina, Mostar, and Pocitelj, to name only a few, directly upon the Foca model, which, along with the attack on Zvornik in Northeast Bosnia, was considered one of the two "models" for ethnic cleansing by both Serb and Croat religious nationalists in their program to annihilate the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina and divide the country between two religiously and ethnically pure Croat and Serb states.
As long as Bosnia-Herzegovina is under the control of war-criminals like Jankovic, there can be little hope for free and fair elections, return of refugees, common political institutions, or a future peace. The Jankovic's have come to power and become wealthy through war and genocide, as their own people have sunk into economic and social misery. They have much to fear from peace and much to gain from war. They need war to maintain privilege and fear that peace will lead to their being held accountable for the misery of the vast majority of people under their control. They control all power and political expression and repress any attempt by moderate Serbs to gain a voice.
With NATO/IFOR acting, in effect, as guards for the indicted criminals, patrolling their territory and making sure they are not disrupted, the Bosnian government is being given a clear indication of the gap between NATO rhetoric and NATO policy. The Bosnian government is now developing its own repressive regional police chiefs, such as Semsudin Mehmedovic in the Zenica region. These men are not organizers of genocide and rape camps like Jankovic and there should be not attempt to morally equalize them with a monster like Jankovic. But they are learning how to repress opposition, harass those of other religions, and act like warlords, and they are learning the rewards of such policies in the absense of enforcement of the Dayton accords.
The tragedy is that, with NATO in place, the Jankovics of Bosnia are vulnerable. They are not in hiding as was Aidid in Somalia. NATO/IFOR knows where they are, can take them out relatively easily, without the political implications of an arrest of Karadzic or Mladic, and could allow then local moderate Serb and Croat forces a chance to organize and participate in the political process.
When NATO/IFOR leaves in December or is replaced by a much smaller, less robust force, these criminals will be enshrined in power and will attempt to lead the Balkans back to the genocidal conflict in which they thrive. =46uture organizers of rape-camps around the world will look at the French refusal to arrest Jankovic, who was indicted by an International Tribunal, whose arrest was mandated, who was surrounded by a massive NATO force, and whose crimes made world news, and realize that if Jankovic can act with impunity under such circumstances, they have no reason to fear consequences of their own behavior or moderate it in any way.
/1/ Gordana Igric, Jon Swain, "War-crime suspects roam free in Bosnia," The Times of London.
/2/ See the Foca page of the Community of Bosnia Foundation for Roy Gutman's fall, 1992 Newsday expose of the Foca Rape camps. www.haverford.students.edu/vfilipov
/3/ See "Bearing Witness" and the Srebrenica page of the Community of Bosnia Foundation for Tribunal Indictments, Helsinki Watch Reports, and links to other evidence and documentation. Ibid.