David Miliband

There is still a massive accountability deficit in the structure of international humanitarian law. The Mothers of Srebrenica, Hasan Nuhanovic and Mustafic family have had to bring cases in the Dutch civil courts in order to try and hold the Dutch government and the United Nations to account for the gross negligence that resulted in the genocidal slaughter of 8373+ victims at Srebrenica. These cases have foundered on the judgment that the Dutch transferred command and control of their Dutchbat contingent to the UN and the UN has absolute immunity from prosecution. This effectively means that once a UN peace-keeping initiative is in place in a pre-genocidal situation the parties involved are relieved of the responsibility to fulfil their undertaking under Article 1 of the UN Genocide Convention to prevent genocide. Whatever their inadequacies and failings they have the protection of the UN's absolute immunity. According to the Dutch courts even though the Dutch forces ordered refugees to leave the protection of the camp at Potocari while murders and rapes were being committed before their eyes, the survivors have no legal recourse. This is a betrayal of the intentions of the Genocide Convention in its 60th anniversary year as well as of Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the victims of Srebrenica and those of the incidents recounted in Save the Children's report earlier this year, encountering this deficit in democratic accountability is a devastating experience. Please honour the memory of Raphael Lemkin by raising the issue with your colleagues at the Council of Europe meeting.

Posted by Owen on October 07, 2008 at 07:52 PM BST #

So it is very unfortunate that the UK is on the other side of law because of Your decision to accept so called Kosovo as an independent state. It is unfortunate that the UK was not committed to each other's territorial integrity and human rights as economic sanctions against innocent are nothing short of genocide! It is unfortunate that the UK viciously opposed Serbia's initiative in the UN General Assembly! Why? The UK should be the Lighthouse of Justice! And now what will You do? UN General Assembly voted to accept Serbia's initiative and the UK became the part of the problem, not of any solution. "Congratulations"! You should resign and save the UK from further shame!

Posted by Sava on October 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM BST #

There is still a massive accountability deficit in the structure of international humanitarian law. The 250.000 Serbs forced to leave parts of Croatia under UN protection are still waiting for it. USAF helped Croats to commit the greatest act of genocide in the last 20 years in Europe! As well as 3.500 Serbs killed around Srebrenica while it was under control of the same Dutch unit. The Hague tribunal concluded that "their commander Oric was not in command". Ha! As well 200.000 Serbs forced to leave Kosovo! while Kosovo was under NATO reign. Just another proof that NATO is an incredible expensive, totally incapable and rotten organisation? We don't really want to believe that it was intentionally, don't we? Yes, it is really a black epoch for the justice!! p.s. Even better, the first post appeared out of nowhere after I posted my second post asking what is going on. PROPAGANDA in the worst sense!!! Miliband should go! to save the UK from any further embarrassment!

Posted by Sava on October 09, 2008 at 08:59 PM BST #

Sava, if you stopped to pay a bit of attention to the way this blog works you would realise that the moderators are actually very liberal and unrestrictive. You just have to have a little bit of patience, which is normal with moderated blogs.

Posted by Owen on October 12, 2008 at 09:21 AM BST #