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BALKAN WITNESSArticles on the Kosovo Conflict
Del Ponte: Srebrenica plan was known to Internationals
by Caroline Fetscher, Der Tagesspiegel
November 2, 2006Carla Del Ponte claims that international observers and politicians knew of plans for mass murder in Srebrenica in advance.
It was known by the international community in 1995 that a mass-murder was being prepared in the Srebrenica area in Eastern Bosnia, says ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in an interview which appeared in the French Paris Match magazine. The interview was conducted by Sylvie Matton published an acclaimed book about Srebrenica (Flammarion, 2005).
The bloodshed in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, supposedly protected by Dutch blue-helmets, was prepared by the Serb leaders Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic. Del Ponte argues 'internationals' knew about this, had discussed the issue among themselves, but took no action. She also claims to know who discussed the massacre before it happened.
During the mass-murder of Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 up 8000 or more men and boys were systematically murdered by Bosnian-Serb attackers - army, paramilitaries and police forces. The ICTY has ruled in more than one trial that these crimes constituted a genocide.
Del Ponte's statements in Paris Match make Frank Tiggelaar who posted on the webforum Justice Watch “wonder why she never followed up on the complaint Francis Boyle filed with her on behalf of the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja Association in 2000.”
Quite a compelling question indeed.
Shortly after the complaint was filed with the ICTY, writes Tiggelaar, "its Deputy Chief Prosecutor Graham Blewitt stated that it was frivolous, and when Mrs. Del Ponte later visited the Mothers in Bosnia she said the ICTY would not deal with the complaint."
Now she seemed to have given this a second thought.However further developments in this story suggest that Del Ponte may regret some of the statements she made. Read more on the website dedicated to these issues: www.domovina.net [website no longer available].
Originally published at http://blog.tagesspiegel.de/justworld/eintrag.php?id=169
Die Autorin
Caroline Fetscher, geboren 1958, schloss 1979 die Gruner und Jahr Journalisten-
schule in Hamburg ab, und studierte dann ab 1980 Literatur- wissenschaft und Psychologie an der Universität Hamburg, wo sie ihren Magister über koloniale Sprache und Afrikaklischees im Werk von Albert Schweitzer machte. Von 1981 bis 1989 arbeitete sie hauptamtlich bei Greenpeace, die meiste Zeit als Chefredakteurin des Greenpeace Magazins. Ihr Spezialgebiet waren Atomwaffentest und der Atomwaffensperrvertrag. Als Publizistin schrieb sie unter anderem für den Spiegel, GEO, die Süddeutsche Zeitung und die taz. Seit 1997 ist Fetscher beim Tagesspiegel. Zu ihren Schwerpunkten gehören die Region Südosteuropa, Menschenrechte, das Jugoslawien-Tribunal, transatlantische Beziehungen, Gender-Debatten, sowie soziale und kulturelle Themen. Buchveröffentlichungen: "Die Tropen als Text" (Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1993), "Der Tropenkoffer"( dtv, 1994), "Srebrenica. Ein Prozess." (Suhrkamp, 2002)