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Russia: Response by Russian MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko to a Media Question Concerning Decision of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to completely Acquit Naser Oric

Question: What is the reaction of the Russian side to the decision of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to completely acquit Naser Oric?

Answer: Moscow has received with bewilderment the recent ruling by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ITFY) over Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz's appeal in the case of Bosniak war criminal Naser Oric, who organized the killing of about three thousand Serbian civilians in the Srebrenica area during the 1992-1995 armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Tribunal not only did not toughen the unprecedently mild sentence rendered in summer 2006, but, on the contrary, fully acquitted the defendant.

This verdict attests further to the lack of impartiality in the Tribunal's work, manifests a biased attitude to some defendants and a lenient attitude to other participants of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and shows that there is a substitution of the fulfillment of a political contract for justice. The Tribunal ruling only confirms the necessity of realizing without delay the adopted strategy for winding down its activities.

Equally incomprehensible is the fact that the Office of the High Representative directly involved in the reconciliation process around Srebrenica preferred to say nothing this time around. And this is so despite the fact that Naser Oric did not voluntarily give himself up to the ITFY, but was arrested and escorted to The Hague by SFOR troops

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