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Twenty years after he'd been sentenced and almost three decades after committing war crimes, I felt a sense of poetic justice when Radoslav Krstić, former Serbian General and Deputy Commander of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) wrote a letter to his warden expressing over his role in the Srebrenica genocide.

The timing was equally poetic. At almost the same time, the International Criminal Court (ICC) finally issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for "crimes against humanity and war crimes".

After over a year of accelerated genocide in Gaza, it felt like, for once, the walls were caving in on the Israeli settler colonial enterprise.Ìý

As Bosnians, we understand that the path to justice is long and fraught with challenges. I am a survivor of the war myself, having been 17 when it started and suffering a leg injury. For the past 20 years, I have waited, enduring great difficulty, for justice to finally come. Although Krstić has admitted to his war crimes, many others have managed to evade punishment, and countless individuals remain unaccountable for their actions. Both implicitly and explicitly, society itself allowed these crimes to happen.

I can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu regarding the situation in Israel and the current state of Israeli society. Krstić, Netanyahu, and Gallant are just the tip of the iceberg. Like in Serbia, each cog of Israel's war machinery and political establishment cheered on the demonisation and destruction of communities.

Despite the silver lining of arrest warrants, fears remain. Like the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the ICC has no force to execute warrants and must rely on states to respect their obligation to international law.

In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, even after the local courts — who do have the power to execute arrest warrants — took over the prosecution of war crimes, we are still waiting. Real justice — and a society that accommodates rather than scapegoats — takes time.

Twenty years ago, when the judges delivered Krstić's sentence, they concluded that Srebrenica was a textbook case of genocide.

Women, children and the elderly were bundled into the backs of buses into the abyss. Some men were lucky to flee, the others were separated, stripped, and slaughtered. Many have never been seen again, others were — piled high in mass graves, their corpses bound and eyes blind-folded, dismembering of what it is to be human.Ìý

The judges concluded that Krstić "consciously agreed to evil."Ìý, head of the VRS, , political leader of the wartime Republika Srpska, and , president of Serbia who died before sentencing, will forever be remembered as war criminals. As both a Bosnian and a supporter of the Palestinian cause, I hope that same faith awaits Netanyahu, Gallant, and more.

Like Krstić,ÌýNetanyahu will be remembered as a war criminal

Like Srebrenica, Gaza has been turned into hell on earth. One day, we will hear judges condemn them. We will see, hear and read about the graphic details of Gaza: the beheaded babies, mass rapes, unlawful detentions, torture, starvation, and the killing of whole families, doctors, journalists, and academics.

But will Netanyahu and Gallant repent? It's unlikely.

Krstić, for his part, concluded in his letter with hopes that his words will encourage others to think about the terrible crimes that he helped commit, but also the "deep, painful but belated regret that I have been living with for decades."

"I do not ask for forgiveness," he wrote, "I am not looking for justification. I do not seek understanding because I know I cannot and will not receive them. Every moment of every day, I think about the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica. I mourn and pray for their souls."

Survivors from Srebrenica acknowledged the letter, insisting that if he felt what he wrote, he needed to name other perpetrators and disclose places of mass graves for over 1000 people who are still missing. He did not do this so far. I also do not believe the day will come when Netanyahu and his allies write a letter similar to Krstić’s. Like Karadžić or Mladić, they are probably unable to feel the guilt.

I know that legal experts, politicians, and others will argue that no one is guilty until proven innocent and that we must wait for arrests, trials, and verdicts.

Until then — and likely even after — Israeli officials and their supporters, both within Israel and abroad, will do everything to manipulate public opinion.

In both cases, a massive propaganda machine is at work, spreading lies and myths designed to incite fear and hatred. The ultimate aim of such propaganda is to justify the crimes of perpetrators—a lesson learned from the war in Bosnia. Yet, despite these efforts, the propagandists failed, and we now know them for what they truly were: war criminals and their accomplices.

Court decisions alone will not prevent crimes if society is not ready to recognise them. Political leaders must create the conditions for that recognition, but today’s world shows a lack of political will to do so. However, massive global protests in solidarity with Palestine demonstrate that people are unwilling to tolerate evil, unlike many politicians. The arrest warrants serve as an additional catalyst, encouraging the public to continue demanding an end to war, impunity, and the prevention of war crimes.

Nidžara AhmetaÅ¡ević is a journalist, editor and author from Sarajevo. She has been working in the media for over 20 years. Her work has been featured in various media in the Balkans, as well as The New Yorker, Al Jazeera English online, The Observer, The Independent on Sunday, the International Justice Tribune, The Guardian, etc. She is also the author ofÌý, published by Routledge.

Nidžara also holds a PhD from the University of Graz, Austria. Her fields of interest are democratisation and media development in a post-conflict society, hate speech, transitional justice, media and political propaganda, human rights and migrations.

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