Adjudicating War Crimes In The Former Yugosalvia — страница 7

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the very existence of the Tribunal is vulnerable to theoverriding desire of the United Nations to effect a comprehensive peace agreement for the region.Thus, any negotiations most probably will include granting amnesty to war crimes offenders. Theremainder of this Note will address 1) the legal bases available to the U.N. International Tribunal; 2)the obstacles the U.N. Tribunal will need to surmount in order to validate its mandate; and 3) theprospects for the creation of a permanent international criminal court that would have jurisdictionover war crimes and other offenses. A. Jurisdictional Bases 1. The Charges The world community has known for some time of atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia,particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Torture, summary executions, internment

in concentration campsreminiscent of Nazi Germany, systematic mass rape, forced prostitution, inhuman treatment ofprisoners and civilians, and destruction or confiscation of private property not justified by militarynecessity have all been documented and would qualify as war crimes under Nuremberg, customaryinternational law, and the “grave breaches” provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977Additional Protocols I and II thereto.(note 80) Further, the fact that these crimes have beencommitted on a mass scale implicates charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.(note 81) Many, if not all, of these crimes are the result of the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnia-Herzegovina byBosnian Serbs. Professor Meron defines this practice as consisting of: Harassment,

discrimination, beatings, torture, summary executions, expulsions, forced crossings of the lines between combatants, intimidation, destruction of secular and religious property, mass and systematic rape, arbitrary arrests and executions, deliberate military attacks on civili