Rijeka, 16 April 2012
Outreach officers Klara Dokmanović and Christopher Fry today travelled to the western Croatian city of Rijeka, to meet a group of high school students and discuss with them the work and accomplishments of the ICTY.
Around 30 students from the Rijeka gymnasium were in attendance, and quickly showed their eagerness to engage with the subject matter.
One student suggested that war is always chaotic, and it therefore seemed unreasonable to convict any individual soldier for his actions. Fry explained that while war is indeed complex and confusing for soldiers, there still need to be rules about what is considered acceptable conduct. No shooting civilians, for example.Unsurprisingly, many of the students wanted to discuss the case which receives the most attention in Croatia, that of former army generals Ante Gotovina & Mladen Markač. Fry and Dokmanović, after outlining the key findings in the first instance judgement, pointed out that the appeals hearing in the case is due to be held on 14 May, and encouraged the students to watch the hearing on TV or through the Tribunal’s website.School psychologist Doris Penić, who attended the presentation alongside the students, said afterwards: “The presentation and discussion were most interesting and extremely useful. I believe this topic should be incorporated into the regular high school curriculum in some way.”