Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Investigator: Demons of the Balkan War \u3c/i\u3e(English Translation), by Vladimír Dzuro (original) (raw)

The War in Ex-Yugoslavia – The Hunting Down and Trials of Its Leaders

Ending War Crimes, Chasing the War Criminals

This chapter looks at the character of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who ran the concentration camps. It is an intriguing story of his fleeing to Brazil at war's end, living incognito for many years and then being ousted by his son's half-Jewish girlfriend. He was kidnapped and spirited out of Argentina by Israeli agents, tried and executed. Chapter 2: Himmler was Hitler's deputy. This is the story of his boyhood, his growing up and his emergence in adulthood as a top Nazi who personally ordered the killing of millions of Jews. It asks the question how could a gentle and respectful boy and young man coming from a sober middle class, Catholic family, so change his personality in such a short time. Chapter 3: Modern day war crimes punishment began with the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War 2 when senior Nazis were put on trial. Today, after a long gestation period, there is now the International War Crimes Court where alleged war criminals can be tried and sentenced to imprisonment. Chapter 4: This chapter examines the role played by some of Africa's major war criminals and how they came to trial-latterly in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Chapter 5: The Western world has its alleged war criminals too. The chapter begins with Robert McNamara who was President Kennedy's secretary of defence and a key player in the war in Vietnam. Later in life he accused himself publicly of having committed war crimes. Then follows portraits of Henry Kissinger, George W. Bush and Tony Blair who many believe are war criminals that should be arrested and sent for trial. Chapter 6: Ariel Sharon was once Israel's most important general scourge of the Arab armies and, later, prime minister. He had no compunction about admitting the atrocities he had committed and defended himself vigorously. Chapter 7: Guatemala, said the secretary-general of Amnesty International, was a country with "no political prisoners only political killings". The author was the journalist responsible for proving that the president of Guatemala was personally directing the death squads which decimated many Indian villages and opposition figures. Over 30 years the author has continued to visit Guatemala and monitor the slow, incremental, improvement in human rights. It has often been one step forward and two steps back but now the courts appear to be taking a firm and courageous stand, convicting many war criminals including a former president.

INVESTIGATING AND PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present the situation regarding the detection and prosecution of war crimes in the Western Balkans, as well as to point out the main specifics or, better said, problems encountered by judicial authorities while dealing with these crimes. Design/Methods/Approach: The article is based on the current work of the judiciary and the prosecutor of the republics of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Croatia. We chose these three countries as the spatial framework for our research because during the civil wars in the Western Balkans most war crimes were committed on their territories. Through content analysis of existing domestic literature and our own survey research, the findings were comparatively analysed. In order to obtain further empirical and relevant information regarding the investigation and prosecution of war criminals in the Western Balkans, the methods of direct observation and analysis of the content of the judicial proceedings were applied. Findings: The work on detecting and prosecuting war crimes in attempting to provide evidence for use in criminal war crimes proceedings in the Western Balkans is a daunting task. This is because these crimes are both factually and legally of the most complicated sort, not the least in terms of their severity. Therefore, the research started by presenting the structure of the responsible governmental bodies conducting proceedings against war crime perpetrators in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. Special attention was paid to legal and practical problems in this field. The authors point to the many challenges making the detection and prosecution of these crimes both difficult and complicated. Thus, the aim of this article is to examine the aforementioned problems and, on the basis of analysis, contribute to building more effective legal and criminalistics methods for detecting and prosecuting war crime offenders in the Western Balkans. Research Limitations/Implications: The research results for the analysis of the investigative procedure and prosecution of war criminals in the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia focus specifically on material collected regarding crimes committed in the period 1991 to 1999 only. Practical Implications: The research results can be used to develop a strategy for detecting and prosecuting war crimesby suggesting improved methods for gathering quality personal and material evidence in the Western Balkans. In addition, the paper provides information for practitioners and theorists outside of the Western Balkanscurrently dealing with issues related to such crimes. By familiarising themselves with the research findings herein, they will be able to expand their knowledge and use it as a basis for new research in this field. Lawmakers can also benefit from the results and make necessary amendments to the legislation and regulations of criminal procedures in the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia to enhance the efforts in the area of countering war crimes. Further, by identifying the problems of conducting and processing investigations in the region, and by stressing the restricted prosecutorial resources, including the limited number of specialised prosecutors of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the shortage of prosecutors and support staff, as well as the lack of specialisation and expertise among defence counsel the findings of this research can contribute to the curriculum for the education of future lawyers (prosecutors, investigators, judges etc.) in this field. Originality/Value: The originality of this paper is reflected in the empirical study of procedures related to investigating and prosecuting war criminals inthe Western Balkans. This approach explores the challenges associated with a variety of issues. As such, it may also provide valuable information to be used in creating new methodologies for detecting and gathering evidence in legal and criminalistics practice. Lastly, it can serve as a basis for other research in the field. Keywords: war crimes, investigation, prosecution, proving, legal and practical problems

The ICTY Library: War Criminals as Authors, Their Works as Sources

International Criminal Justice Review, 2018

The purpose of this contribution is to shed light on the literary output of persons indicted or sentenced for war crimes in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Over one hundred books-autobiographies, studies, collections of documents, and even novels and poetry have been generated by no less than 22 persons in the detention unit of the ICTY in The Hague since 1993. Although some of these works did cause an occasional stir, as of yet there is no detailed overview of the entirety of this literary output. In order to fill this gap, this article assembles a full collection of works produced by ICTY inmates and analyzes this genre, the motivations of its authors, and the implications of their work. Examined as sources, these works can be used to study the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, the work of the ICTY, and its perception by the accused. I conclude by examining the corrosive role these works play in the process of coming to terms with the troubled past of the region. Keywords prison literature, ICTY, war criminals, wars in the former Yugoslavia Academic work on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) rightfully notes the richness of literature on the ICTY. In contrast, works that emerged in the ICTY, more precisely at its detention unit, have not been the subject of detailed scrutiny. It is therefore not a matter of public knowledge that at least 119 books were written by indicted or convicted war criminals detained there and in other prisons where they serve time. Although this or that book written behind the ICTY bars made a splash, the extent of their production evades even most of the specialists interested in the ICTY. Therefore, an investigation into these works is in order to determine its scope, genre, and content. They are also examined as historical sources, both for the war in the former Yugoslavia and for the trials over the crimes committed during the hostilities. Lastly, as motivation of their authors is analyzed, their impact on flawed process of societal ...

Surveying History at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

SSRN Journal

Education of the Defense Language Institute. He is the author of one book and numerous articles on Slavic linguistics, textual analysis, and intensive foreign language instructional methodology. From 1999 through 2007, as a Research Officer with the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTY, he analyzed expert submissions by prosecution and defense teams, articulated guidelines relevant to expertise, and himself authored multiple expert submissions and testified as an expert. In 2007, Prof.