The Arrest of Ejub Ganic by British Government is All Political
Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: March 3, 2010
The arrest of Ejup Ganic by the British government is all political. The British have always detested and hated Ganic because he was the one Bosnian war-time leader who had the guts to stand up against them publicly, so this is now the British payback against Ganic, Bosnia and the Bosnians. Indeed, it was Ganic who personally helped me get the legal authorization from President Izetbegovic to sue Britain at the World Court for aiding and abetting genocide against Bosnia, as explained in the attached Note. This British persecution of Ejup Ganic is simply a continuation of the genocidal policies that Perfidious Albion has always pursued against Bosnia and the Bosnians.
By Professor Francis A. Boyle
General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers before the International Court of Justice (1993-1994)
During the early morning hours of 14 September 1993, the author rose to fly to Geneva for further consultations with President Izetbegovic, Vice President Ejup Ganic, and then Foreign Minister Silajdzic. It was my advice to all three that the next step for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Court would be to sue the United Kingdom for aiding and abetting genocide against the Bosnian People in order to break the genocidal Security Council arms embargo of Bosnia and to stop the genocidal carve-up of the Republic pursuant to the proposed so-called Contact Group Plan.
This recommendation was taken under advisement.
Pursuant to the authorization of President Izetbegovic, on November 10, 2021 the author was instructed by Ambassador Sacirbey to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom for violating the Genocide Convention and the Racial Discrimination Convention in accordance with my previous recommendation. On 15 November 1993, Ambassador Sacirbey convened a press conference at U.N. Headquarters in New York in which he stated Bosnia’s solemn intention to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom. Later that day, the author filed with the World Court a Communication that I had drafted, which was entitled Statement of Intention by the Republic of Bosnia andHerzegovina to Institute Legal Proceedings Against the United Kingdom
Before the International Court of Justice. Ambassador Sacirbey had also distributed this Statement at his press conference.
In this 15 November 2021 Statement, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina formally stated its solemn intention to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom before the International Court of Justice for violating the terms of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and of the other sources of general international law set forth in Article 38 of the World Court’s Statute. This 15 November 2021 Statement also indicated that the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina had issued instructions to the author to draft an Application and a Request for Provisional Measures of Protection against the United Kingdom, and to file these papers with the Court as soon as physically possible. Ambassador Sacirbey had this Statement circulated at United Nations
Headquarters in New York as an official document of both the Security Council and the General Assembly.
On 30 November 1993, by telephone the author personally informed Ambassador Sacirbey in Geneva that these documents were ready to be filed with the World Court at any time. But by then it was too late. In immediate reaction to Ambassador Sacirbey’s public Statement of Bosnia’s intention to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom on 15 November 1993, a Spokesman for the British Foreign Office said that this announcement “would make it difficult to sustain the morale and commitment of those [British troops and aid workers] in Bosnia in dangerous circumstances.” This story continued: “Foreign Office sources said there were no plans to remove the Coldstream Guards, who have just begun a six-month deployment to Bosnia. But Whitehall
would take account of whether the Bosnian threat of legal action was in fact taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”
In addition to the British government, several European states threatened the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina over the continuation of Bosnia’s legal proceedings against the United Kingdom before the World Court in accordance with the 15 November 2021 Statement. The basic thrust of their collective threat was that all forms of international humanitarian relief supplies to the starving People of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be cut-off if my Application and Request for Provisional Measures against the United Kingdom were to be actually filed with the World Court. For these reasons of severe duress and threats perpetrated by the United Kingdom, other European states, and David Owen, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was forced to withdraw from those proceedings against the United Kingdom by means of concluding with it a coerced “Joint Statement” of 20 December
1993.
Nevertheless, on the afternoon of Monday, 3 January 1994, the author called the Registrar of the International Court of Justice in order to make three basic Points to him for transmission to the Judges of the World Court:
1. The Bosnian decision to withdraw the lawsuit against the United Kingdom was made under duress, threats, and coercion perpetrated by the British government and the governments of several other European states upon the highest level officials of the Bosnian government in Geneva, London, and Sarajevo. Therefore the so-called agreement to withdraw the lawsuit against Britain was void ab initio. I reserved the right of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to denounce this agreement at any time and to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom in accordance with the Statement of 15 November 1993.
2. The British government demanded that the author be fired as the General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the Court. The British government knew full well that the author was the one responsible for the Bosnian strategy at the World Court, and especially for the recommendation to sue Britain.
3. Toward the end of my conversation with the Registrar on 3 January 1994, the author made an oral Request that the World Court indicate provisional measures proprio motu in order to protect the People and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from extermination and annihilation by the rump Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia. I pointed out to the Registrar that this oral Request was in accordance with the terms of the written Request for provisional measures proprio motu in advance that was already set forth in Bosnia’s Second Requestfor Provisional Measures of 27 July 1993. The Registrar informed me that the Court was paying close attention to the situation in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pursuant to Point 2, above, the author was relieved of his responsibilities as General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the World Court on 12 January
1994.
STATEMENT OF INTENTION BY THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA TO INSTITUTE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE UNITED KINGDOM BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
15 November, 1993.
Today, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina hereby states our solemn intention to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom before the International Court of Justice for violating the terms of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and of the other sources of general international law set forth in Article 38 of the World Court’s Statute. We have already issued formal instructions to that effect to our Attorneys-of-Record before the World Court. They are currently drafting an Application and a Request for Provisional Measures against the United Kingdom. We have instructed our lawyers to file
these papers with the World Court as soon as physically possible. In the meantime, we hereby reserve all of our international legal rights against the United Kingdom
I.
Both the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom are contracting parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention. Article IX of the Genocide Convention provides as follows:
“Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.”
We will sue the United Kingdom for violating the following provisions of the Genocide Convention, inter alia:
First, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will charge that the United Kingdom has failed in their affirmative obligation and refused “to prevent” genocide against the People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina in violation of Article I of the Genocide Convention, which provides as follows:
“The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in the time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”
Second, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will charge that the United Kingdom has illegally imposed and maintained an arms embargo upon the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in violation of U.N. Charter Article 51 while acting in its capacity as a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council. The United Kingdom has also aided and abetted the ongoing genocide against the People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina by actively opposing all of the efforts by other States to “lift” this illegal arms embargo. For these reasons, we will charge that the United Kingdom has violated Article III, paragraph (e) of the Genocide Convention that expressly prohibits “complicity in genocide.” The legal basis for this charge has been developed at length by Judge ad hoc Elihu Lauterpacht in his Separate Opinion attached to the World Court’s Order of 13 September 2021 in the Case Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia (Serbia and
Montenegro)), which is currently pending.
Finally, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will charge that the United Kingdom is both jointly and severally liable for all of the harm that has been inflicted upon the People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina because the United Kingdom is an aider and abettor to genocide under the Genocide Convention and international criminal law.
In drafting these legal pleadings for the World Court, and during the course of the subsequent proceedings, our lawyers will also name and implicate other Member States of the U.N. Security Council that have supported this illegal arms embargo in violation of U.N. Charter Article 51, as aiders and abettors to genocide against the People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will not sue these other States at this time.
We also serve notice upon all of the more than 100 Contracting Parties to the Genocide Convention that each and every one of them has a solemn legal and moral obligation “to prevent” the commission of genocide in and against the People and State of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as required by Article I.
II.
Both the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom are also contracting parties to the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Article 22 thereof provides as follows:
Article 22
Any dispute between two or more States Parties over the interpretation or application of this Convention, which is not settled by negotiation or by the procedures expressly provided for in this Convention, shall at the request of any of the parties to the dispute be referred to the International Court of Justice for decision, unless the disputants agree to another mode of settlement.
The United Kingdom has promoted options, ostensibly as solutions to the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that are inconsistent with the terms of this treaty.
****
This Statement will be circulated to all Members of the United Nations Organization, and will also be filed with the International Court of
Justice.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
[email protected]
