Bizarre case of activist incarcerated in The Hague

A female activist who has devoted her life to exposure of war criminals is currently under 24-hour fluorescent light behind bars at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Florence Hartmann, a former journalist with Le Monde who later served as the spokeswoman for Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was arrested by UN police on the grassy area outside the court, despite efforts by Bosnia war survivors to protect her.

They had gathered to wait for a verdict on crimes committed by former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić over his crimes throughout the Bosnian war in 1992-95.

The court found the 70-year guilty of genocide and nine other charges, sentencing him to 40 years in prison, announcing he “bears individual criminal responsibility” for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which some 8,000 Muslim boys and men were slaughtered in the course of four days.

Outside the court on that day, cops were trying to contain “women from Srebrenica and survivors from the camps who were trying to protect” Hartmann, she said in a private phone call from detention later.

Justice away on holiday

Hartman said she was appalled by “watching General Ratko Mladić [an accused Bosnian Serb military leader] walking around the yard and associating with other prisoners while I’m locked away in a cage.

“The outrageous thing was to see the UN and Dutch police kick away women from Srebrenica and survivors from the camps who were trying to protect me from arrest, after all they’ve been through.”

The 53-year-old was originally convicted of contempt of court in 2009 over claims that the tribunal was withholding significant information in regard to the 1995 massacre.

On Thursday, people tried to close ranks around her but police finally managed to bust her. She was dragged through the lobby of the court   building to end up incarcerated under 24-hour fluorescent light.

“Florence is in solitary isolation, totally segregated on what is called suicide watch, which in practice means that the light is on 24 hours a day and she is checked on every 15 minutes,” said her lawyer, Guénaël Mettraux.

Based on the motions Mettraux had filed, the activist could be released by Tuesday, he predicted.

“But the problem is that there is literally no one at the detention unit who can address my inquiries, and my application will not be addressed until after the Easter break. I asked to speak to the commanding officer, and they told me he was away, I suppose on holiday. When I asked to speak to someone about conditions of detention, they told me to call back on Tuesday.”

“A journalist is being detained in conditions – isolation, segregation, suicide watch – that were supposed to have been created for war criminals. It is incomprehensible.”

Hartman’s son, Stéphane, believed the only way peace activists could fight her incarceration was by sharing the story.

“Bear in mind that so-called justice takes holidays, therefore even Monday will be off! We are now in the weekend; therefore, my mother will have to rot in jail all this time. But the little justice that we can bring is to share this story.”

Stéphane added that his mother “had the visit of the French consul in the Netherlands on Friday – it sounded more like a courtesy visit. Nothing much done except bringing magazines and some chocolate, which she was not able to keep as it was food. Anyway this was a nice gesture to see her, but nothing done.”

Hartman’s revelations, which have appeared in a book called Peace and Punishment: The Secret Wars of Politics and International Justice, are about key documents redacted at the request of the Serbian government, which prove that Serbia was in control of the Bosnia Serbian Army at the time of the Srebrenica massacre.

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