March 2015

Libyan Slaughter Cannot Go Unanswered

The International Criminal Court’s commitment to investigate crimes against humanity in Libya is sending a strong message that the world’s most powerful nations are increasingly willing to stand up for the world’s most vulnerable people.

For only the second time in its history, the United Nations Security Council last week requested that the international prosecutors at The Hague intercede in an ongoing conflict. Many legal and investigative obstacles remain, but international politicians will appear intent on holding Muammar Gaddafi accountable for the murderous crackdown everyone can see on YouTube.

Ejup Ganic Case Distracts World From Real War Crimes

The legal travesty inflicted upon former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic is a chilling reminder that truth continues to be a casualty long after war is over. Although the politically motivated war crimes case against Dr. Ganic was rejected this week, the allegations represent a broader campaign by ultra-nationalist groups within Serbia to excuse, explain and outright deny Bosnian genocide.

Dr. Ganic’s case wasted time and money and distracted from legitimate international efforts to bring true war criminals to justice – men like Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general who oversaw the systematic murder of more than 8,000 unarmed civilians at Srebrenica. Fifteen years later, he still remains free.

Civil War or Genocide? Ask the Mothers of Srebrenica

Civil War or Aggression? Civil War or Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide?

What’s the defining difference?

How can I possibly answer that question without screaming, crying, raging…?

For the first time, I can say with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I know how: Go to Srebrenica, as I did.

Visit the hundreds – thousands – of mothers and sisters who still grieve. Visit their children’s and brother’s graves. Ask them what the defining difference is.

U.S. Should Go Slow on Haiti Troop Withdrawal

For hundreds of thousands of Haitians whose homes were pulverized in the Jan. 12 earthquake, the next three months may well shape the success – or failure – of long-term recovery.

Spring in Haiti will see the onset of the rainy season, the waning of interest by donors and the gradual departure of U.S. troops. Of these three inevitabilities, the last is most worrisome.

Among the Building Blocks in Haiti: Tetanus Shots and Prosthetics

In less than a week on the ground here, volunteer medical teams from the Jenkins-Penn Haitian Relief Organization have treated more than 4,000 patients and distributed more than 20,000 pounds of desperately needed supplies — from antibiotics and wound care kits to 4,000 water filters. Another 270 palettes of supplies are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Today alone our teams fanned out across refugee camps in and around the capital. One team of 11 established a makeshift clinic and saw 240 patients — including a woman whose foot was saved from amputation because we were able to arrange transport to a hospital. Others went from tent to tent, treating wounds and seeking out critical patients in need of more intensive care.

Don’t Let Haiti’s Natural Disaster Become a Man-Made Tragedy

The chaotic streets of Haiti feel eerily familiar to me, even though this is my first trip to Port-au-Prince. The crumbled buildings, the crying children and the general sense of despair reminded me almost immediately upon landing here this week of my homeland in Bosnia. The depredations visited upon Bosnia were entirely man-made, but the natural destruction in Haiti also has the very real potential to devolve into a long-term — and man-made — crisis.

That is, unless the international assistance that has poured into Haiti over the past two weeks continues long after television crews fly home and the heart-rending images they broadcast fade from the world’s screens. I know, because I saw it happen in Bosnia.

Don’t Forget Bosnia

The war in Afghanistan, and the debate over how to best fight it, is understandably at the center of attention in the White House these days.

As the world’s leading power, the United States carries the burden of responsibility to oppose genuine threats to world peace. As an advisor to Haris Silajdzic, the Chairman and Muslim representative in the three-member presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would like to remind our American friends that the burden of leadership extends not only to decisions about war, but also to decisions about peace.