Never Again to Genocide Trials

In late June, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia handed down an encouraging decision: it dropped the genocide charge against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić. While that might sound like a bad thing, international law would be better served if the crime of genocide did not exist.

HEIDELBERG – Rarely does one read such hopeful news: in late June, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquitted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić of genocide. That might sound like a bad thing: Karadžić, who once warned Bosnia’s Muslims that war would lead them down the road to hell, surely deserves to be sentenced for the acts of which he was just acquitted – murder, siege, and slaughter almost beyond naming. But for genocide? Better not.

https://prosyn.org/d49e6UR