Kruševac, 22 March 2012
Outreach representative Morgiana Brading today travelled to meet around 30 high school students at a debate about the Tribunal in the central Serbian town of Kruševac. Also speaking at the event was Novak Vučo from the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office.
Morgiana spoke about some of the main achievements of the Tribunal, including its groundbreaking sexual violence trials, which sparked an enthusiastic debate.
While the students initially claimed to know little about war crimes and the Tribunal itself, strong opinions on, for example, the acquittal of Naser Orić and the ongoing Haradinaj et al retrial, soon surfaced during the debate.
Students admitted they did not know why or by whom the ICTY had been established, but expressed an interest in learning more about the founding of the Tribunal. They continued to question why local judiciaries did not deal with war crimes, and Morgiana explained that, at the time the Tribunal was set up, there had been little willingness in the region to initiate investigations or trials. Mr Vučo was then able to offer follow up information on how a specialised War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court and a War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office were established in 2003 with the assistance and support of the international community.