TRYING TO STOP AGGRESSIVE WAR AND GENOCIDE AGAINST THE PEOPLE AND THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
More: TRYING TO STOP AGGRESSIVE WAR AND GENOCIDE AGAINST
On April 7, 1993 I tracked down my Client and Friend Ejup Ganic, Vice President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vienna by phone from The Hague:
FAB: Look, tomorrow I am going into the World Court and the entire world’s news media will be there. If I win anything at all, I want authority to call in NATO airstrikes.
Ganic: Sure! You got it!
So right after winning my World Court Order for RBIH from the Court on 8 April, I walked out of the Court’s Grand Courtroom into the Foyer right outside of it in The Peace Palace and called in NATO airstrikes to save the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all Bosnians in front of the world’s news media assembled there. I argued that article 1 of the 1948 Genocide Convention required every state in the world “to prevent” the ongoing genocide in Bosnia that was just overwhelmingly determined by the World Court itself. After concluding my press conference I then adjourned for the office of the President of the World Court Jennings for a meeting with him, Rosenne and the Yugo Ambassador, as recorded by the Court’s Registrar. The President sat at the head of the table with the Registrar to the right. I sat at the middle of the table directly across from Rosenne and the Yugo Ambassador. I stared right at them and said right away in the most threatening tone of voice possible: “If this does not stop immediately, I will be back!” Jennings said: “Right.” And the Registrar Valencia-Ospina wrote it all down. I was deliberately preparing the ground to win my second World Court Order of Provisional Measures of Protection for RBIH against the Yugos on 13 September 1993.
Several hours later, after concluding all my work at the Court and with the news media I got back to my hotel as the sun was beginning to come down. The Receptionist told me that she had the BBC on the line and they wanted to do a live interview with me then and there. I told her I would take their call in the Hotel Lobby and that she should patch the call into me here:
BBC: Professor Boyle, NATO Headquarters in Brussels and Washington DC have just announced that they are imposing a NATO no-fly zone over Bosnia. What is your reaction to that?
FAB. Well Ma’am, I certainly hope that the NATO pilots do not fly over Bosnia, watch all the rapes, robbing, pillage and genocide going on below, report it back to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, London, Paris and Washington, and then do nothing at all about it.
Tragically, that is exactly what happened until late August of 1995. But at least the Yugos could no longer murder the Bosnians from the sky!
Professor Francis A. Boyle
General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers before the International Court of Justice.
