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Last September 14th, following what was called « a wrong trial », the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yougoslavia sentenced Florence Hatmann to a € 7 000 fine in order to « send a strong message » to those who plan to question their mode of functioning.

This verdict is basically unacceptable for it dangers :

This is why Florence Hartmann decided to appeal and we strongly support her.

A wrong trial.

The ICTY was created in 1993. Its mission is to establish the truth concerning the hierarchical chains of responsibility with respect to the crimes committed, to judge the potentially guilty persons, and to bring justice to the victims. Its creation was then welcome by Human Rights activists as a major step forward and a huge hope to rebuilding a lasting peace.

However this Tribunal just tarnished badly its reputation and International Justice’s one when sentencing Florence Hartmann to € 7 000 fine.

A French journalist and essayist well-known to the defenders of the Human Rights, Florence Hartmann also served as advisor for the Balkans and spokeswoman of the ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte from 2000 to 2006, In 2007 she published Peace and Punishment (Flammarion 2007) that denounces the deal between Serbia and the judges of the ICTY in charge of the trial vs. Milosevic. This deal lead to keeping concealed some of the secret archives of the Supreme Defense Council of the federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Now, these archives offer evidence of the direct involvement of Serbia in the crimes that took place in Bosnia & Herzegovina, especially in the Srebrenica genocide. Thus the archives could have made it possible for the International Court of Justice to convict Serbia for the genocide and to convict it to paying compensations to Bosnia. By this deal victims have been deprived of their right to both truth and justice.

On August 27th, 2008, the ICTY indicted Florence Hartmann for having “knowingly and willfully interfered with the administration of justice by disclosing information in violation of an order of the Appeals Chamber.

We decided to express our support by editing a first petition. A trilingual site caseflorencehartmann took over the petition through former countries of ex-Yugoslavia. On July 3rd, 2009 (last day of the trial) we had gathered 4300 signatures coming from 38 different countries. Numerous personnalities from political, diplomatic, media, art and cultural backgrounds joined the Support Committee.

Messages from War Victims and Human Rights activists poured in each of them a tribute to her work and a demand for the sake of transparency in International Justice.

During the trial, on June 15th, 16th and 17th and on July 1st and 3rd, we relayed minutes of the hearings, noticeably the tesitimonies of Mr. Louis Joinet and Mrs Natasa Kandic. They establish with absolutely no doubt that first the concept of « contempt » was given a very unusual meaning here and second the concerned documents and decisions had been subject to public debates since March 2006, that is to say more than a year before the publishing of Mrs Hartmann’s book and article.

These are all the reasons why we ask you to sign this new petition thus expressing your commitment to the values of International Justice and your refusal of this iniquitous verdict.

You can also download the petition and mail it to: Fédération Mères pour la paix, BP 40728, 59657 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex
Or fax it at : + 33 4 9456 0185

Please contact us for any suggestions, comment or information.

  • Nanou Rousseau, Élisabeth Samarcq, Dominique Dupuy Fédération Nationale des Mères pour la Paix,
  • Faik Dizdarevic, Maurice Lazar et André Prochasson Association Sarajevo