by Julian Ku
Genocide is one of those phrases with both highly potent political ramifications as well as highly complicated legal requirements. These two characteristics, GUÉNAËL METTRAUX argues in the IHT, make the obsessive focus on whether something is or is not a genocide (Armenia? Srebenica?) a largely hopeless and unhelpful exercise for historical events.
The very proposition that legal concepts such as genocide could ever adequately measure and reflect the intricacies of such historical events could itself be questioned. International criminal law, which includes genocide, provides for ways to criminalize the conduct of individuals who have taken part in mass atrocities — not for passing judgment on history.
Even if it were capable of this, the law is likely to provide some support for both sides and might therefore contribute to grinding the process of healing historical wounds to a slow and divisive ethnic or religious standstill rather than to help resolve anything.
The debate surrounding the use of the word “genocide” has made the nations involved hostages of a legal issue that they seem unable to resolve. Better, it seems, for them to focus on recording and recognizing facts that are undeniable historical truths and leave the debate over the legal characterization of these events for another day. Future generations of Turks and Serbs would be grateful to have been freed from the burden of explaining, defending or arguing over crimes that they have no responsibility for.