Julija Bogoeva holds a law deree summa cum laude from the University of Belgrade, and is one of the founders of the independent news agency BETA, for which she reported from the ICTY. For thirteen years she worked as an analyst for the ICTY’s Office of the Prosecutor as part of the Leadership Research Team, which analyzed governance, political, police and military structures. With Caroline Fetcher, she published the book Srebrenica: Ein Prozess (2017), about the first trial for genocide at the ICTY.

In 2015, she published a unique analysis of ICTY judgments, entitled The War in Yugoslavia in ICTY Judgments: The Goals of the Warring Parties and Nature of the Conflict.

„Knowledge of law and journalistic experience were critical to my work for the Office of the Prosecutor. Our team leader, Patrick Treanor, was looking for someone versed in the Yugoslav legal system. My many years of journalistic work at the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug gave me a direct insight into how Yugoslavia functioned at the federal level, in all its complexity, including relations between the republics and provinces, and all the personalities involved. This combination of education and practical knowledge proved to be very useful and fruitful for my work in the Office of the Prosecutor, as did the knowledge I gained from establishing, and working for, the BETA news agency.“

„It is certain that without the Tribunal not much would be known about the war in Yugoslavia.“

„The most important state documents of the parties to the conflict would not have seen the light of day if they had not been requested by the Tribunal, and they are the most important evidence. The battle for those documents was long, complicated and uncertain. It is inconceivable that any of these states would voluntarily disclose these documents, or hand them over to the court of a neighboring state. The secrecy of state documents—hiding what is really being done, which is often immoral, illegal, criminal and harmful to society—is one of the biggest problems and dangers of our time, and needs to be addressed urgently.“

„It should also not be forgotten that a number of important foreign witnesses only appeared before the Tribunal because they recognized its authority.„

„Two things were important to me: to find out and understand what happened in my country and why it was destroyed; and a human desire to hold criminals accountable through journalism, by bringing the facts established by the Tribunal closer to people in Yugoslavia, particularly in Serbia, where it all began. Today, I see this as an essential part of my life, and my modest personal contribution to learning and accepting the truth as a basis for constructive, productive and ennobling human relationships.“

„Nothing human is eternal, including denial and willful blindness. We must be persistent, and we must not accept relativization and ignorance. In our past, especially the recent one, lies all the answers to our present—why the region, and every individual in it, is in such a state; how to build a humane society of educated, responsible, equal and active citizens working together for the common good; and how to create a just and peaceful world in which there is a place for all people and all living beings of this beautiful little planet of ours.“

„The Tribunal is a sad treasure that is at our disposal. It is important to know about it, and we should use its legacy, because it will make us better people, better societies.“

„There is darkness here at a time when it is becoming dark all over the world. Those who embrace the darkness in the Balkans feel free to act, as the world powers show that they are no better. It is high time that we rediscover the best people among us, from the past and the present, and by using our own critical wits and abilities, we can bravely start working to build the society that most people need. Only in this way will the negative processes you mention in this issue be stopped.“

„Praising war criminals, denying the truth about Srebrenica and every other truth about the war is detrimental to us all. Reasonable, decent people don’t do that. Denying the truth does not change the truth itself, but it does change those who deny it, for the worst. Th e answer to denial is facts, not emotions and confl ict, which is what the deniers want. We need to be smarter than them. Th at is one of the most important lessons of the Tribunal’s legacy.“

„In addition to experiencing the destruction of my homeland, Yugoslavia, working in the ICTY Prosecutor’s Office was the most important and instructive experience of my life. It was the greatest privilege to be part of one of the most significant developments, in human terms, of the 20th century: the creation of an international tribunal that guaranteed the application of international humanitarian law, and the accountability of high-ranking officials for the criminal annihilation of tens of thousands of people, as well as large-scale destructions of UNESCO cultural and religious heritage sites. It is truly a privilege to be able to see for yourself, up close, that such an endeavor is real, and really possible. People from all spheres worked honestly, dedicatedly and highly professionally together to establish the facts, i.e., the truth about events, in a part of the world to which they were not personally connected, to prove that justice is, in fact, possible. It’s unbelievable, but true. I still can’t help but marvel at that. When I finally said goodbye to my ICTY colleagues, with whom I had worked for so many years, I remember asking them, “Is this real? Did we really do all that?”

„An analysis of all verdicts handed down by the end of April 2015 showed that the Tribunal had determined the nature of the conflict and the goals of the warring parties . It was, according to the findings, an international armed conflict, an expansionist war for territory: first Serbia against Croatia, and then Serbia and Croatia against Bosnia and Herzegovina . Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbia and Franjo Tuđman’s Croatia intended to create large ethnically pure states—“Greater Serbia” and “Greater Croatia” . Serbia, at the expense of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina Appreciating the evidence of both the prosecution and the defense, the judges found that the war in the former Yugoslavia was international at all stages, due to the direct and indirect participation of Serbia and Croatia […] Serbia and Croatia were at war with Bosnia and Herzegovina through the Army of Republika Srpska and the Croatian Defense Council, over which they had general control . The war was, according to the verdicts, a widespread and systematic, discriminatory attack on the civilian population; ethnic cleansing was a goal, not a consequence of the war, as all defenses argued . The goal of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, attacked from two sides, was to defend and liberate the entire territory.“

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