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30 Hum. Rts. 12 (2003)
Omarska Camp, Bosnia - Broken Promises of Never Again

handle is hein.journals/huri30 and id is 14 raw text is: Omarska Camp, Bosnia Broken Promises of Never Again By Kelly 0. Askin he Omarska Camp trial before the Yugoslav Tribunal in The Hague established important precedent concerning the laws of armed conflict, the prosecution of gender-related crimes, the scope of persecution, and the development of the joint criminal enterprise theory of liability to hold indi- viduals accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Omarska Detention Camp In early August 1992, reporters Ed Vulliamy (The Guardian) and Roy Gutman (Newsday) gained access to Omarska prison camp in northern Bosnia, setting in motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to international war crimes trials for crimes committed in the camp. The reporters told horror stories of murder, torture, rape, and barbaric conditions in the camp, supplying haunting pictures of emaciated detainees imprisoned behind barbed-wire fences. The images evoked memories of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps and induced fears that a holocaust was again happening on European soil. Overnight, Omarska camp became a symbol of the horrors of the war in Bosnia and the ethnic hatred rife therein. The outrage generated by the atroci- ties reported in the camp was one of the catalysts of a United Nations (UN) effort to investigate war crimes committed in the conflict. The camp was closed less than a month after its exposure caused international uproar. A Commission of Experts discovered widespread and sys- tematic crimes committed in the Balkan conflict; consequently, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was set up by the United Nations in 1993 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Mandy Jacobson's subse- quent film Calling the Ghosts, focusing on two women who survived repeated rapes in Omarska camp, created further international fury and poignantly high- lighted the need to ensure that gender crimes committed during the war, including in Omarska camp, be prose- cuted. The ICTY and its sister tribunal in Rwanda have made enormous strides in developing international law and prose- cuting wartime sexual violence, and the judgment handed down in the Omarska Camp case regarding rape as a form and means of persecution represents yet another considerable step forward in redressing gender crimes. Notably, before the judgment was handed down in this case, the two tribunals had already rendered convictions recogniz- ing rape as an instrument of genocide (Akayesu case), a crime against humani- ty (Akayesu and Kunarac cases), a war crime (Furundzia, Celebici, and Kunarac cases), a form of torture (Furundzija, Celebici, and Kunarac cases), and a form of enslavement (Kunarac case). Judge Patricia Wald, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was one of three distin- guished UN-appointed international judges hearing the Omarska Camp case before the ICTY in The Hague, Netherlands, along with Judges Almiro Rodrigues of Portugal and Fouad Riad of Egypt. After a part-time trial lasting over a year, the ICTY Trial Chamber Judgment (formally cited as Prosecutor v. Kvocka et al.) was handed down on November 2, 2001, one day before Judge Wald retired from the tribunal and returned to the United States to eventually head the new Open Society Justice Initiative in Washington, D.C. Prior to April 29, 1992, the five Bosnian Serb defendants on trial were ordinary citizens going about their daily lives during the war. The next day, life changed drastically for the non-Serbs residing in Prijedor, a town in northeast Bosnia. On April 30, Serb forces con- ducted a bloodless takeover of the town of Prijedor and immediately imposed a discriminatory regime against Bosnian Croats and Muslims: non-Serbs were dismissed from their jobs and forbidden from attending school; their movement was restricted and their religious facili- ties targeted for destruction. Within a month of the takeover, Serb forces also set up detention camps in Prijedor--Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopoje-in order to suppress a sus- pected armed uprising of Muslims and Croats in the area. These camps were ostensibly established to serve as collec- tion centers to identify persons suspect- ed of collaborating with the opposition. Crimes committed in the Omarska camp in particular were the focus of this trial held against five accused who worked in or regularly visited the camp, which held well over 3,000 male detainees and some 36 female detainees. The indictment alleged that the accused were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed in Omarska camp by such acts as murder, torture, and cruel treat- ment. Each accused was also charged with persecution as a crime against humanity for the beatings, humiliation, psychological abuse, sexual assault, and confinement in inhumane conditions prevalent in the camp. One accused was also charged with physically com- mitting rape and other forms of sexual violence. Human Riiht2 deeopn intrntonaa an prseuing watm sxa l vile ae Winter 2003

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