Watching War Crimes: The Srebrenica Video and the Serbian Attitudes to the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre

Abstract

Reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia is an important element in the re‐establishment of lasting peace and security in the region and is mainly facilitated by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In June 2005, this process was affected significantly by the broadcasting of a video of Serbian police forces executing a group of young Muslim men following the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. The video, made public during the Milošević trial, affected public opinion in Serbia, forcing it to acknowledge the event and Serbia's role in it. It also influenced Serbia's political elite and provided a stimulus for a more open debate about war crimes committed during the Yugoslav war. The episode shows the power of moving images and their potential role in the work of the ICTY and the reconciliation process as a whole.

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented to the War Crimes Research Group and the International Peace and Security Seminar at King's College London in November 2006. The author would like to thank Professors James Gow and Marie Gillespie, as well as Drs Andrew Hoskins and Ben O'Loughlin—all colleagues on the collaborative research project, ‘Shifting Securities: Television News Cultures Before and After Iraq 2003’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council's New Security Challenges Programme (ESRC Award RES‐223‐25‐0063), which enabled the research for this article.

Notes

[1] UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/827, 25 May 2003.

[2] UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/764, 13 July 1992.

[3] UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/771, 13 August 1992.

[4] UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/780, 6 October 1992.

[5] UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/827, 25 May 2003.

[6] See The Prosecutor v. Tadić, Case No IT‐94‐1‐I.

[7] The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević, Case No. IT‐02‐54 (Kosovo Indictment).

[8] The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević, Case No. IT‐02‐54 (Kosovo Indictment).

[9] The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević, Case No. IT‐01‐50‐I (Croatia Indictment) and The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević, Case No. IT‐01‐51‐I (Bosnia indictment).

[10] The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević et al., Case No. IT‐99‐37‐PT (Second Amended indictment for Kosovo).

[11] Serbian Government officials often explained the lack of arrests of indictees as a fear of destabilizing the security of the country.

[12] Indictment against Slobodan Medić, Branislav Medić, Pero Petrašević Aleksandar Medić and Aleksandar Vukov, Belgrade District Court, War Crimes Chamber. Available online at: http://www.tuzilastvorz.org.yu/html_eng/optuznice/optuznica%20skorpioni.htm.