Trying the Butcher of Omarska

Abstract

In 1992, genocide returned to Europe. That summer, the world learned of the existence of Serb-run concentration camps in Bosnia, with conditions reminiscent of the Nazi-run camps of the Second World War. During that bloody summer, a quarter of a million Muslim civilians were killed, two million were driven from their homes, and some 20,000 Muslim women were raped as part of the Serb tactic known euphemistically as “ethnic cleansing.” Six years later, many of the architects of ethnic cleansing and their henchmen are now standing trial before the first international criminal tribunal since the Second World War. The story of the establishment of this tribunal and the prosecution of its first case is the subject of Michael Scharf’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, Balkan Justice.

Keywords: Bosnia, genocide, Michael Scharf

JEL Classification: N40