Criminals & Victims

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I'm going to keep this short and sweet, because, honestly, it's 1:15 am and I need to sleep. Also, not much happened today.

We had two visits this afternoon, after a free morning. One was to the Bosnian War Crimes Tribunal, where we had the chance to talk with a legal advisor. He mentioned the difficulties present in prosecuting War Criminals, including building a case and avoiding corruption. After the Balkan war, international judges came in to help sit on cases; however, they have been phased out, allowing for more corruption in the system. Cases are not decided by jurors, but rather by a single judge or a panel, depending on the severity of the possible sentence, allowing for yet more.



We also had the chance to meet with a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons, which is the only international organization headquartered in Bosnia. He talked about how they work with states to locate missing persons after wars, battles, and disasters, and how that's especially necessary here, given that almost a third of the 45,000 who were missing after the Balkan Wars still are.



Granted, cost may be a factor: for many bodies, given the use of mass graves, and the fact that many bodies were moved to secondary mass graves, sometimes more than once, they have to test several of the bones they find. Each test runs about $600, so it's clearly not cheap. However, for the aid they provide in demonstrating potential war crimes and the closure they provide to the family, it's certainly worth it.



Beyond those two fascinating meetings, not much happened today. We have an essay due Saturday night, so several of us are finishing that up. We played a few card games, bonded, wrote, and looked forward to our upcoming adventures in other cities!

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