| Serbian/FRY forces during the
course of the campaign, particularly the wanton
destruction of towns or villages and devastation not
justified by military necessity, the attack and
bombardment of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, and
buildings, and the plunder of private property. For each
of these crimes, individual criminal responsibility can
be attributed under Article 7(1) of the Statute for their
planning, ordering and instigation by persons in
positions of authority within the Republic of Serbia and
the FRY. In its Rule 61
Decision in the Karadzic and Mladic case, of 11
July 199643, Trial Chamber I similarly addressed the
issue of the responsibility of military and political
leaders for planning, ordering and instigating crimes on
a widespread and systematic scale in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The Trial Chamber stated,
"The above-mentioned
consistent criminal acts, all targeting the same type
of population and manifesting the same desire to
annihilate its culture and religious sites, coupled
with the effect of criminality on such a massive
scale, properly gives rise to the question: what is
the appropriate hierarchical level at which to
analyse the concept, planning and organisation i.e.
the concerted project and the execution i.e. the
accomplishment of the desired result. This analysis
of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia should,
without however exonerating those more directly
responsible, converge upon a political responsibility
in the highest sense of the term. Pre-eminently, this
entails individual criminal command responsibility
and, in this case, that of political and military
leaders. Historical precedence (such as that of the
International Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo)
furnishes no example where the historical
responsibility at the highest level for planning,
preparing or executing the criminal design of a
conflict has not been discovered."
The Trial Chamber thus examined
the policy of ethnic cleansing during the conflict in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and assessed the individual
criminal responsibility of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic. The Trial Chamber took the view that,
"The description of the
offences has demonstrated that those committing them
were part of an institutional, political and military
organisation whose purpose was to establish a
territory with a homogeneous population and which
covered all of the regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
held by the Bosnian Serb Administration.
According to the two
indictments, the offences charged were committed by
the military and police personnel obeying the orders
of the Bosnian Serb administration. Both indictments
indicate that the perpetrators were acting under the
control, command and direction of Radovan KARADZIC
and Ratko MLADIC. All of the charges would therefore
involve the individual criminal responsibility of
those in superior authority."
- Prosecutor v Radovan Karadzic
and Ratko Mladic, Review of the Indictment
pursuant to Rule 61, 11 July 1996, IT-95-5-R61
and IT-95-18-R61.
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