BY HIKMET BILA
CUMHURIYET- It is very upsetting to see that in hundreds of years nothing has changed. Especially after World War II, efforts to protect human rights on an international basis led to high hopes. Crimes against humanity were condemned, and heavy punishments were foreseen for violators.
But soon we could see that this was only political trickery, a strategic ruse. A serious crime against humanity like genocide has also become a tool to advance political and strategic interests.
Genocide is still in the eye of the beholder, as is crime and punishment.
Twelve years ago, a grave crime against humanity was committed in Bosnia. Thousands of Bosnians were slaughtered by Serbians. Thousands of women were raped. Countless old people and children were killed by snipers. And all of Europe sat and watched this tragedy unfold.
One incident was particularly unbelievable. Srebrenica was declared a `safe area' by the United Nations, and thousands of Bosnians took shelter by laying down their arms. This `safe area' was to be protected by Dutch UN troops. But Serbian troops besieged the area and asked the Dutch troops to hand over the Bosnian civilians to them. And the Dutch troops did so. The Serbians slaughtered 8,000 civilians, and the Dutch soldiers did nothing but watch this massacre. Then they did toasts with these Serbian butchers. Moreover, recently, these Dutch soldiers were decorated with state medals in the Netherlands.
This week the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that the killing of 8,000 Bosnians in Srebrenica was a `genocide,' but that Serbia was not guilty of this crime. For this reason, Serbia isn't obligated to pay compensation to Bosnians!
On the one side, calling events which happened more than 90 years ago during Ottoman rule a `genocide' and charging the Republic of Turkey with responsibility for these events, which have no relation to them ... On the other side, clearing people responsible for the Srebrenica genocide where the graves are still fresh. Here is the situation of the concept of human rights from the view of the court .
This week, victims of another massacre were being commemorated on its 15th anniversary. On Feb. 25, 1992 Armenians killed some 1,000 of civilians in the village of Hocali, in Karabagh. Two hundred of them were women and children. In addition to this mass killing, countless Azerbeijanis were slaughtered in a number of villages. About 2 million Azerbeijanis were exiled from their homes and became immigrants in other regions of Azerbaijan, and they still are. They're trying to survive under very harsh conditions.
The world is blind to them. Europe is deaf to them.
As I said previously, genocide still lies in the eye of the beholder, along with massacres, crimes and punishments. Under certain political and strategic calculations, a genocide can be cleared, while others may not be even seen. Is this the modern world?