The Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide and the Association “Movement of the Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa” believe that the acquittal of General Milenko Živanović of the Army of the Republika Srpska was expected and without surprise, and point out that “the politics that stood behind the crime continue on their path”.
“Quickly and efficiently, the Court in Belgrade issued an indictment and an acquittal within four years, which is a record for the Serbian judiciary. Milenko Živanović is not guilty of war crimes in Srebrenica, according to the verdict of the special war crimes court in Serbia, while other cases drag on in courtrooms for years and even decades, as is the case with members of the RS special police, the Živanović case reached a first-instance verdict in record time,” the statement of these associations states.
Serbia once again shows, they add, that it is not subject to any rules or standards, but only to the humiliation of victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Completely outside all legal norms, despite enormous evidence, including that provided by the Hague Tribunal, Serbia, in defiance of everyone, releases yet another person, in terms of hierarchy, responsible for the monstrous crimes in Srebrenica. As expected and without surprise, the politics that stood behind the crimes continue on their path,” they point out in the statement.
The association expresses hope that the BiH judiciary will not give up on its indictment, which is legally different from the indictment of the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office, and that it will persist in the persecution of Milenko Živanović, but also of the others who, as they conclude, found refuge in a state that the International Court in The Hague has qualified as an aggressor against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
