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world news Diahuebs 1 Juli 2021

UN war crimes court convicts 2 Serbs over Bosnia atrocities

(AP) — A United Nations “The trial chamber is satis- place at the U.N. Interna- Prosecutors had alleged that manitarian Law Fund group,
court on Wednesday convict- fied that the accused provid- tional Residual Mechanism both defendants were part of described the verdict as “very
ed two former allies of late ed practical assistance which for Criminal Tribunals. a “joint criminal enterprise” important” because it is the
Serbian President Slobodan had a substantial effect on the among top Serbian officials last Hague trial and because
Milosevic of aiding and abet- commission of the crimes The verdicts Wednesday are to force non-Serbs out of “the accused and sentenced
ting crimes committed by of murder, forcible displace- the final U.N. prosecution in parts of Croatia and Bosnia. individuals belong to the
Serb paramilitaries in a Bos- ment and persecution com- The Hague for crimes com- most important institution in
nian town in 1992. mitted in Bosanski Samac mitted during the bloody Judges said they were con- Serbia.”
and were aware that their breakup of Yugoslavia. vinced the enterprise existed,
It is the first time that Serbian acts assisted in their commis- and that Stanisic and Sima- Iva Vukusic, a historian at
officials have been convicted sion,” Presiding Judge Bur- The court’s chief prosecu- tovic knew about it, but said Utrecht University, said
by a U.N. court of involve- ton Hall said. tor, Serge Brammertz, said prosecutors had not proven ahead of Wednesday’s hear-
ment in crimes in Bosnia. in a statement that his office beyond reasonable doubt that ing that the prosecution of
Hall said that Serb forces and would study the judgment they actually participated. Stanisic and Simatovic, who
However, the court said there paramilitaries took over the “and decide whether there were originally sent to The
was not sufficient evidence town in northern Bosnia in are grounds to appeal.” Munira Subasic, leader of Hague to face trial in 2003,
to convict them of similar April 1992. a Bosnian survivors’ group has taken too long.
crimes committed in other “As senior officials in the called the Mothers of Sre-
towns and villages in Bosnia “Numerous crimes were State Security Service of the brenica, welcomed the rul- “I think this case is really
and Croatia as the former committed against the non- Republic of Serbia, Stanisic ing that there was a Serbian showing us that if interna-
Yugoslavia violently disinte- Serb population ... including and Simatovic contributed to plan to drive non-Serbs out tional justice wants to be a
grated in the early 1990s. looting, rape and the destruc- the commission of crimes by of Bosnia. viable solution, this is not
tion of religious buildings paramilitary forces and other the way to run it,” she said
Jovica Stanisic and Franko and cultural monuments,” armed groups in furtherance “Serbia is responsible for the in a telephone interview. “It’s
Simatovic were convicted of Hall said. Local Bosnian of ethnic cleansing cam- war in Bosnia ..., there is no been too long in the making.”
aiding and abetting the crimes Croats and Muslims were paigns against non-Serbs,” way Serbia can find to ab-
of murder, deportation, forc- forced into detention centers Brammertz said. solve itself of that,” she said. Even so, it offered an op-
ible transfer and persecution where they were held in in- portunity to pass the first
in the town of Bosanski Sa- humane conditions, tortured Stanisic’s lawyer, Wayne Jor- Earlier this month, appeals judgment at an international
mac, and each was sentenced and killed, he added. dash, said he would appeal. judges at the same court con- court on Serbia’s role in the
to 12 years’ imprisonment. firmed former Bosnian Serb wars.
The judgment can be ap- Stanisic and Simatovic were “They found one incident in military chief Ratko Mlad-
pealed. originally acquitted in 2013 a municipality, and the evi- ic’s convictions for his role Milosevic was charged in a
by judges who said pros- dence of that was weak,” he in atrocities throughout the broader indictment with fo-
Stanisic is a former head of ecutors had failed to prove said. “And to me it looks like Bosnian war, and upheld his menting crimes in the Balkan
Serbia’s State Security Ser- important elements of their a cynical compromise that life sentence. wars but he died in his cell
vice, and Simatovic was a links to the crimes. Appeals we have to find some way to in The Hague in 2006 before
senior intelligence operative judges quashed the not- convict him to justify putting Natasa Kandic, a prominent judges could deliver verdicts.
with the service. guilty verdicts in 2015 and a man on trial for 18 years.” Serbian rights activist and
ordered the retrial that took the former head of the Hu-

Migrant hunger strike puts pressure on Belgian government

(AP) — A hunger strike in a nation of 11.5 million “I have started this, I have to 20,000 people who would do ger strike now were not part
by hundreds of migrants where some say they have do it till the end. I put my exactly the same.” of any legal program but have
living in Belgium without been working and living for life at risk, I lost 15 kilos (33 worked in the gray economy
legal permission is put- a decade. pounds). I am able to lose “That’s not the way to go in the nation of 11.5 million
ting increasing pressure another 15 (33 pounds) or about it,” he told VRT net- where they have no social
on a government coalition To highlight their despera- 20 kilos (44 pounds) to be work. protection and are often at
weighing the wellbeing of tion, some hunger strikers regularized,” said Yasser Me- the mercy of unscrupulous
those involved against the stitched their lips together douni, a 26-year-old from Al- But hunger strikers like bosses.
need to stick to immigra- this week, and only accept- geria who said he arrived in Gajendra Gurung, a 40-year-
tion and asylum rules. ed small amounts of liquids Belgium five years ago. old father of two from Nepal The French-speaking Social-
through a straw. Estimates and who arrived in Belgium ist and Green coalition part-
The hunger strike started of the number participat- “All these actions have one 11 years ago, want action ners have called for a more
May 23 in two universities ing range as high as 400 but goal: get regularization, show now. flexible approach that could
and a Brussels church, by Migration and Asylum State that we need documents. We give the hunger strikers a
migrants desperate to obtain Secretary Sammy Mahdi has don’t do that for nothing,” he “Just give me a work permit, better shot at obtaining the
legal residency papers to con- used a figure of about 200. told the Associated Press. so I can work and give food necessary papers, as tensions
tinue and improve their lives to my (children), and they heighten among the seven
Mahdi has insisted he is seek- will grow,” he said. coalition partners that have
ing to quicken up and im- comprised the government
prove the whole application Belgium, like so many other since October.
system for people seeking to wealthy European nations,
stay in Belgium but refuses to has had an ambivalent re- Their government program
budge when facing demands lationship with migration. is not specific on how to deal
by the hunger strikers for Since the 1960s, many have with such a migrant situation.
their cases to be handled now. been invited to come work
and help build states across At the same time, the scenes
“They say that there are the continent. at the three locations in Brus-
150,000 living here illegally, sels look increasingly desper-
and the 200 people that de- Still, few were fully accepted ate, with some people unable
cide to stop eating should in society and became the to stand up because they have
be regularized individually? brunt of an often racist back- become too weak, further in-
What would be the result? A lash when economies took a creasing the sense of urgency
week later you get 200, 2,000, dip. Many of those on hun- to come up with a solution.