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HE David Wright Miliband,
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
London, United Kingdom
Dear Mr. Minister:
The decision of the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland to detain Dr. Ejub Ganic on the basis of an extradition request and at the behest of the authorities of the Government of Serbia raises concerns regarding your Ministry’s commitment to the ICTY, the Dayton Accords as well as the standards of justice expected. The Belgrade government has been unilaterally pursuing a “wanted list” of Bosnian & Herzegovinian citizens despite that this contradicts the authority and review of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, “ICTY,” the Dayton Accords as well as bilateral agreements. Continue reading Letter to UK Secretary of Foreign Affairs
 Muhamed Sacirbey How to judge the success of The Hague Tribunal, (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), in accomplishing its mandate, but it would impossible to make such an assessment until the job is fully completed? The Tribunal (or “ICTY’) may be extinguished before the mandate is complete and leave a rather incomplete, perhaps by some design, an ambiguous record of the events, people and institutions. It is even not clear what ICTY records and evidence will be left for future reflection or continued delivery of justice? Who or what will retain possession and provide for dissemination of such and under what conditions and restrictions? In 1993, when its creation was still in the balance, we did not struggle then only now to see the Tribunal fall short, politically expedient or not.
Birth of Tribunal Stalled by Divergent Agendas And a Dubious Commitment to Justice or Victims
The Hague Tribunal was unprecedented in the work of the UN, perhaps the Nuremberg Trials providing some historical guide. Nor did the Tribunal necessarily have unreserved support from all UN Security Council, (“UNSC”), members. Some were eager to put forth the prospect of a war crimes tribunal in 1992 and 1993 more as an alternative to resolute action to confront genocide rather than a sincere commitment to objective and unqualified justice. By promising justice at some point in the future, the Security Council cynics calculated that their inaction at the crucial moment of witnessing the crime would not make them appear morally, politically or militarily ambivalent. Their posturing though was more a philosophical case rather than a serious commitment: something akin to Santa Claus remembering whom the bad children were when Christmas comes. Many did not want to actually see an international war crimes tribunal established fearing that would become “too independent.” Continue reading Job Not Complete at The Hague Tribunal?
 Sebastian Aulich The presidential campaign in Poland is unofficially underway. Although the election is in the fall this year (no official date yet known) there are already several candidates who officially kicked off their campaigns.
The SLD party (Democratic Left Alliance), Poland’s post-communists (or social-democrats, if one prefers), nominated Jerzy Szmajdzinski as their presidential candidate. Mr. Szmajdzinski is a Member of the Sejm (U.S. equivalent of the Congress) and previously served as the Minister of Defense in Leszek Miller’s cabinet. He enjoys around 5% of popular support, despite being endorsed by such popular figures as ex-president Aleksander Kwasniewski and his wife. Mr. Szmajdzinski is an experienced politician and public servant; nevertheless he is quite uncharismatic and probably a wrong choice for the SLD, which unsuccessfully struggles to find a leader of Kwasniewski’s caliber, who could push the party again into the mainstream politics from their marginal position that they find themselves in since 2005. Continue reading A Woman Will Sacrifice For Her Husband
 Democrats' logo January was not a good month for Democrats. At the start of the month, Congressional Democrats were in the final stages of ironing out differences in a sweeping health insurance reform bill, a party priority for decades. Then the party lost a special Senate election in the reliably blue state of Massachusetts – and adding insult to injury, it was the seat held by Ted Kennedy, who until his death last fall was the lion of the Senate and the leading champion of health care reform.
Along with the Massachusetts seat the Democrats lost their 60 seat Senate supermajority, and can no longer break a solid Republican filibuster, complicating (but not preventing) the final legislative steps to passing health care reform. But much worse, the Democratic Party broke into a collective nervous fright, a party on the edge of panic.
This is not new for Democrats. Losing five out of six presidential elections between 1968 and 1992 left them, or at any rate the party’s professional class and commentariat, with a strong inferiority complex, which the 2000 recount debacle revived with a vengeance. The liberal blogosphere, which grew up out of the recount fight and Washington Democrats’ acquiescence in the Iraq war, has since its inception pushed for Democrats to be bolder. Yet nowhere has the atmosphere of the past two weeks been more panic stricken. One (lesser known) contrarian blogger aptly described it as a ‘panic about panic.’ Continue reading A Month to Forget for the Democrats
- Muhamed Sacirbey
Should Bosnia Reconsider its Troop Deployment to NATO Coalition in Afghanistan If Bosnia & Herzegovina is not offered NATO Membership Action Plan, (MAP)?
Bosnia & Herzegovina (”BiH”) has offered a substantial military commitment of troops to the NATO coalition effort in Afghanistan. However, just as BiH is readying the deployment, the US State Department and some EU member states have now effectively blocked BiH’s road toward NATO accession, the Membership Action Plan, (or “MAP”). It is much more than BiH again being left waiting at the altar. BiH is being denied MAP for reasons that have little to do with the capacity or other considerations related to its military. To the contrary, BiH’s ability to contribute to NATO and UN military efforts is more highly considered. Rather, it appears that some in Washington, Brussels and EU capitals believe this a way to press Bosniaks, (”Bosnian Muslims”), to make further concessions in negotiations regarding BiH’s constitutional framework. Apparently the logic is that since Bosnian Serbs may not be as enthused regarding NATO membership,(presumably due to their greater affinity for Moscow), this prospect should then be used as leverage to prompt those that are most inclined toward NATO, the BiH Croats and Bosniaks.
Perverted & Counterproductive Exclusion
This logic is as counterproductive for BiH as it is self defeating for NATO’s efforts in Afghanistan. Further, it shows that when BiH is concerned, particularly the Bosniaks, they are treated as much less the potential partners and more with the disrespect of patsies. By comparison, Montenegro, newly separated from Serbia, part of the federation that attacked BiH back in 1992 and majority Orthodox Serb, has been offered NATO’s MAP although it is not committing troops to the NATO effort and objectively is not as well versed in NATO doctrine. Don’t misunderstand: I’m all for NATO also bringing Montenegro, (and for that matter Serbia), into the alliance, but why is it that BiH constantly suffers from a moving bar generally kept out of its reach despite the fact the BiH Army is one of the most functionally and operationally capable and trained in NATO methodology? Continue reading Should Bosnia Reconsider Troop Deployment to Afghanistan?
 Haiti Earthquake The earth may continue to shake under Haiti, at least 40 aftershocks since the 7.0 Richter that still has to yield or for that matter identify most of its victims. The longer term consequences will be as momentous for the survivors in Haiti and the global community, particularly the United Nations. Perhaps it is premature to speak of the future of Haiti, but that is what holds out hope for the survivors and also pays the proper tribute to those that have perished, the thousands of Haitians and maybe as many as hundreds working under United Nations flag and mandate before the quake to help Haiti restore stability and reach self-reliance.
First now, Save Lives
First responders from around the world currently are doing their best to save the living still trapped. It is by far the paramount job for the next week plus, and we all have a responsibility to assist in that effort. Below are only some of the organizations/efforts committing assistance to Haiti earthquake relief. (UN, MTV, Hard Rock Cafes and Yele Haiti are only a sample of organizations committed to immediate relief assistance, all in their unique ways: MTV is organizing concert with Wyclef Jean and George Clooney, logistics tentative but scheduled for January 22, 2010. Hard Rock is making it easier for guests to donate as well, putting together music and other events to directly support). Continue reading Haiti and United Nations: Sharing Tragedy
 Muhamed Sacirbey Along with mercantilism globally, is predation within financial markets ever more the defining characteristic?
Even the predators can become potential prey in today’s financial, currency and commodity, markets. Thus, predatory behavior can also be defensively driven. Market participants perhaps may believe that they are acting in a preemptive nature to avoid becoming the prey, or they may be running in packs, herds seeking profit but also safety in the security of numbers. Of course, some are simply driven by predatory opportunism with the hunter’s confidence fearing few consequences including from the regulatory environment. The recent recession has been considered transformational, particularly in the need for greater regulatory oversight and limiting the power of “too big to fail; however in terms of the increasingly primal nature of the financial and commodity markets, little seems to have changed in market participant behavior. This may foretell a return to the pitfalls of the past. If predatory market behavior, (including “bubbles”), was not the root cause of the recent financial market turmoil, then it was the impetus for even greater trauma.
Stalking the Financial Jungle
The consequences are that capitalism’s free markets have in fact increasingly taken on the characteristic of a financial jungle. Rather than traditional investors, various types of participants are stalking the jungle seeking out the weak and unaware frequently hunting in loose packs. The term “hedge funds” now includes a wide array of institutions with almost as many strategies of “investing,” and it would be inappropriate to simply place the focus on them as responsible for the transformation from free to predatory market behavior. Undoubtedly though the surge of new market participants generally labeled as hedge funds has dramatically altered the nature of how money is “invested.” Continue reading Defining Today’s Global Capitalism: Free or Predatory Markets?
 European Court of Human Rights European Court of Human Rights issues ruling on discriminatory character of Bosnia & Herzegovina Constitution drafted as part of US & EU led Dayton talks. Will BiH adopt new constitution and on which basis and by what process?
An Awkward Moment
An awkward moment, to say the least, for those who had employed the Dayton Accords as an accessory to the rewriting of history and inflated political ambition once the European Court of Human Rights, (ECHR) declared Bosnia & Herzegovina’s, (BiH), Constitution crafted in Dayton under their supervision as violating Europe’s most fundamental principles. You might think that as one of the signatories of the Dayton Accords in 1995, I would be defending the virtues of these Accords. To the contrary, from the outset, I was vocal that Dayton was morally, legally and functionally flawed but perhaps under the circumstances it was the lesser of two evils. It was pressed upon the Government of BiH by those that had orchestrated the ethnic cleansing and the US and European mediators. With the extended threat of genocide still then pointed at the head of BiH’s citizens who I was obliged to represent and defend, it was more important to bring the killing and war to an end. Further, we understood the Dayton Accords as a transitional document that ultimately would have to implode if not dramatically refined to reflect BiH’s place as a member of the Euro-Atlantic family as well as its own history of pluralism. The critical decision of the ECHR perhaps finally will release BiH from an unnatural grip of the Accords, and it feels like a vindication for me who withdrew his signature years earlier, (I also resigned in Dayton as Foreign Minister to signal my disillusionment with the process and substance). More importantly, it is an opportunity for all to see a new start for BiH. The ECHR decision reflects a much broader flaw in the handiwork in drafting and implementing the Accords, and it will no longer be plausible for those who have their eyes wide shut to claim that they do not see the bare truth of the emperor without clothes. Continue reading A verdict against Dayton Peace Accords
 Angelina Jolie in Darfur Not so recently ago, on December 10, Angelina Jolie published an interesting op-ed in Newsweek criticizing President Barack Obama for his inaction in Darfur. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama publicly promised to take decisive measures to stop this genocide, lend logistical support for international troops and never abandon people, who are dying in Darfur. Endorsed and supported by numerous human rights groups, modern age thinkers of Samantha Power’s caliber, he invigorated idealist students across America and the globe, eventually to become nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize just 10 days after being sworn in as the 44th President. Nowadays, over one year after serving in the office, even Hollywood, which played a mighty role in elevating Barack Obama’s celebrity status, is implying that the issue of Darfur was used by him merely to broaden his political base. Historically, the same thing did Bill Clinton in 1992, when he was publicly promising to stop Serbian concentration camps in Bosnia but he actually never did until 1995, when the fall of Srebrenica prompted broad international outrage and unexpectedly strengthened political position of Bob Dole, Clinton’s most serious opponent in 1996 elections. Continue reading “Arbeit Macht Frei” in Darfur
 Florence Hartmann Since Karadzic was transferred to The Hague Tribunal in July 2008 to stand a trial for the genocide and war crimes, some knotty questions emerged. Two months after his transfer, the Prosecution’s Office issued a new indictment against the long time fugitive. The indictment of September 2008 says, in its paragraph 20, that “in the days immediately preceding the 11th of July, 1995, Radovan Karadzic and others formed a shared objective to eliminate the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by killing the men and boys and forcibly removing the women, children and some of the elderly men.”
At first glance, it looks nothing unusual because, since 1995, Karadzic has been indicted for his participation in a conspiracy of a joint criminal enterprise to permanently remove the Bosnian Muslim and the Bosnian Croat communities from the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he claimed as a Bosnian Serb territory. However, more attention should be paid to the temporal scope of the criminal charges against him, which have varied through the years. Continue reading Srebrenica through the ICTY’s eyes
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