Crime victims fear that Šešelj's release sends a message that crime pays

 

Victims gathered around the Association „Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves“ have sent a protest letter regarding the provisional release of Vojislav Šešelj, president of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and suspect for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

The Trial Chamber approved the release of Vojislav Šešelj from the Hague Tribunal on provisional liberty, due to his serious health condition.

The victims of the Serbian aggression sent the protest letter concerning this decision of the Trial Chamber to Theodor Meron, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, and Gabriela Knaul, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Munira Subašić, President of the Association „Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves“ says that the victims are dissatisfied with the work and procedures of the International Tribunal in the case of Vojislav Šešelj.

-We demand that our doubts about the work of the Tribunal be considered. Our doubts primarily relate to the unprofessional work of the Tribunal President Theodor Meron. We believe that through his work over the past four years, he has destroyed the justice that was the fundamental purpose of the Court's establishment, Subašić states.

The victims of aggression further emphasize that they fear justice in the case of mass crimes in BiH from 1992 to 1995 will not be served and that the victims will not receive the spiritual satisfaction they have been waiting for years.

Confirmation of their fears, they state, is also the release of Vojislav Šešelj. This has caused fear among victims that the Tribunal is not fulfilling its obligation, which is based on justice and a warning to future generations that crime does not pay and will be sanctioned.

The question arises, the victims further state in their letter, in which direction the Tribunal is heading in the final years of its existence and what message this court will give to future generations, NAP reports.