letter to inogs re: genocide denier prof. william schabas

8/8/2019 Letter to INOGS re: Genocide Denier Prof. William Schabas

1/3

January 12, 2011.

Dear International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS),The Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada {IRGC} would like to voice concernover the proposed merger of your organization with the International Association ofGenocide Scholars (IAGS).[1]IAGS's membership numbers remain highly questionable and they are certainly notrepresentative of the majority of international scholars. IAGS is an obscure organizationled by Prof. William Schabas, an academic who regrettably reduced himself to the

position of being a genocide denier.Please be advised that the IAGS president, Prof. Schabas, offered his expertise toSerbian defendants at the Hague Tribunal, who had been charged with crimes ofgenocide. His proposed testimony - in which he aimed to deny genocide in Srebrenica -was rejected on the grounds that there were conflicts of interest[2] with specific respectto the close friendship that he enjoyed with the Judges Carmel Agius and KimberlyProst.[3][4]In his book, entitled "Genocide in International Law: The Crimes of Crimes" (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2d ed., 2009), Prof. Schabas denies that the killing of Slav citizens

under Nazi occupation constituted genocide. The same book denies genocide duringthe Bosnian war of the 1990s.We wish to draw attention to the following facts:

[i] That the killings of Serbs by the Ustasha forces and the killings of Bosniaks by theChetnik forces during World War II were and are, indeed, widely recognized as acts ofgenocide.[ii] With respect to the Bosnian war of 1992-1995, three cases were legally validated asgenocide; they included:

[a] the Srebrenica massacres (Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic),[b] the Doboj massacres (Prosecutor v. Nikola Jorgic), and[c] the Foca massacres (Prosecutor v. Novislav Djajic).

INSTITUTE FOR THE RESEARCH OF GENOCIDE CANADA

7 Southside Place, Unit 6

Hamilton, Ontario, L9C 7W6

Phone: (905) 385-3606 | www.instituteforgenocide.ca


2/3

In 2005, both Houses of the United States Congress passed resolutions asserting that

the policies of aggression and the internationally referred to ethnic cleansing asimplemented by

Serb and Croatian Ustasha forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995 -including the Srebrenica massacre - constituted genocide.A leading holocaust researcher, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton - author of several books,including "The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide" and "TheGenocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and the Nuclear Threat", agrees that whathappened to the Bosnian Muslims "merits the use of the word genocide." He is recipientof a Nobel Lectureship, the Holocaust Memorial Award and the Gandhi Peace

Award. Since the 1960s, Dr. Lifton has been internationally recognized for his researchinto the diverse aspects of genocide.

According to Dr. Lifton,"What's happening there [in Bosnia] merits the use of the word genocide. There is aneffort to systematically destroy an entire group. It's even been conceptualized bySerbian nationalists as so-called 'ethnic cleansing'. That term signifies mass killing,mass relocation, and that constitutes genocide."[5]Furthermore, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs is currently defending himselfagainst charges of genocide in connection with terrible crimes committed in and across

11 Bosnian municipalities.After due consideration and with reference to the above text, IRGC ascertains thatnothing short of irreparable damage will permeate the credibility of any

organization seriously concerned with genocide, who might decide to merge with thisassociation.Respectfully,Professor Emir RamicDirector IRGC

[1] Letter from Prof. William Schabas, 7 October 2010.http://www.genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/membership-schabas-101006.pdf[2] ICTY, "Decision on the Admissibility of the Expert Report and Proposed Expert Testimony of ProfessorSchabas" 1 July 2008 http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080701.pdf




http://www.genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/membership-schabas-101006.pdfhttp://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080701.pdfhttp://www.genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/membership-schabas-101006.pdfhttp://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080701.pdf


3/3

[3] ICTY, "Decision on the Request for Reconsideration of the Decision on the Admissibility of the Expert

Report and Proposed Expert Testimony of Professor Schabas," 30 July 2008.

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080730a.pdf[4] Prosecutor v. Popovic, Pre-Defence Conference, 22 May 2008.http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/trans/en/080522ED.htm[5] Toledo Blade, "Slavic Horror Termed Genocide" 28 February 1993.http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=rCcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,7117418&dq




http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080730a.pdfhttp://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/trans/en/080522ED.htmhttp://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=rCcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,7117418&dqhttp://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/080730a.pdfhttp://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/trans/en/080522ED.htmhttp://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=rCcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,7117418&dq

letter to inogs re: genocide denier prof. william schabas

Documents