Abstract
The war crimes legacy made Belgrade’s civil-military relations and security sector reform an exception to the patterns of civil-military relations in post-communist countries. The involvement in Croatia and Bosnia and operations in Kosovo left the VJ (and its successors) with a dark shadow of war crimes allegations hanging over it. Over time, cooperation with the ICTY became a key condition for the new democratic authorities in Belgrade. It also poisoned relations between the armed forces and some of the reformers. In addition, relations with the VRS (Vojska Republike Srpske — Army of Republika Srpska), which was an integral part of the VJ and whose officers’ wages were still being paid from Belgrade in 2002, served as a constant reminder of the VJ’s role throughout the 1990s. At the same time, the inability or unwillingness to apprehend General Ratko Mladić and transfer him to the ICTY significantly delayed Belgrade’s transition process. These issues proved a formidable obstacle to integration in Euro-Atlantic processes and consequently hindered the consolidation of democracy.
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Notes
Biljana Vankovska and Håkan Wiberg, Between Past and Future: Civil-Military Relations in Post-Communist Balkan States (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2003), p. 249.
Jessica Lincoln, Transitional Justice, Peace and Accountability: Outreach and the Role of International Courts after Conflict (London: Routledge, 2011)
W. Schabas, The UN International Criminal Tribunals: Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Sabrina Ramet, The Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević, 4th edn (Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2002), p. 218.
Dorothy Q. Thomas, and Regan E. Ralph, ‘Rape in War: The Case of Bosnia’ in Ramet, Sabrina (ed.) Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States (University Park: The Penn State University Press, 1999), pp. 213–214.
See Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge, 2nd edn (New Haven and London: Yale Nota Bene, Yale University Press, 2002)
Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
UN Security Council Resolution S/Res/827, 25 May 2003. Although there are more aspects and approaches to dealing with the war crimes legacy, such as domestic trials or a truth and reconciliation commissions (to mention just two), the focus was mainly on the International Tribunal. See Rachel Ken, James Gow and Zoran Pajic (eds), Prosecuting War Crimes: Lessons and Legacies of 20 Years of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (New York: Routledge, 2013).
Yves Beigbeder, judging War Criminals: The Politics of International justice (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1999).
See Rachel Ken, The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: An Exercise in Law, Politics and Diplomacy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 32–40.
See, for example, Aleksandar Fatic, Reconciliation via the War Crimes Tribunal (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000).
Gary J. Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000)
A.J. Colson, ‘The Logic of Peace and the Logic of Justice’ International Relations, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2000, pp. 53–56.
See James Gow and Ivan Zverzhanovski, ‘The Milošević Trial: Purpose and Performance’ Nationalities Papers, Vol. 32, No. 4, December 2004, pp. 897–920.
See ‘Operacija Sablja: Na Krvavom Tragu’, Vreme, No. 639; ‘Paravojne formacije in MUP Srbije: Srce tame’ Vreme, No. 618, 7 November 2002; See also Vinko Pandurović, Rat u BiH i paravojne formacije (Belgrade: Atelje ‘M’, 2004).
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© 2013 James Gow and Ivan Zveržhanovski
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Gow, J., Zverzžhanovski, I. (2013). The War Crimes Legacy. In: Security, Democracy and War Crimes. New Security Challenges Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276148_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276148_7
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