Crimes and Responsibility in a Civil War

Civil war blurs many distinctions that are otherwise clear, both in politics and in criminology. The reason for the blurring is in the interplay between law and politics. Political considerations dictate that, in order for a post-settlement reconciliation process to be successful, guilt must be determined as individual, rather than collective. The wars were designed to be criminal — they were civilian onto a civilian, paramilitary criminal unit onto a village, army onto a city, terrorist group onto conscripted and disarmed young soldiers in disarray and without effective command. Political power structurally shields those whose moral guilt for war time atrocities is the greatest, while exposing to prosecution those who, although guilty, are less so than the key political leader. Their paramilitary units, formerly criminal gangs with thick police records, had a free reign over the helpless Serbian residents of Sarajevo.