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A key leader in the Bosnian War was convicted of genocide by a United Nations tribunal. Radovan Karadzic was a former leader of the Serbian Republic during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Bosnia was one of the ethnically mixed republics in the former country of Yugoslavia. Karadzic managed to escape arrest for twelve years. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for ethnic cleansing, including killing more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica. His trial was compared to the Nuremberg trials of German Nazi officials. Listen to hear more about this important war crimes trial.
Story Length: 3:41
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December 2, 2015
9:55
It has been 70 years since Nazi leaders went on trial in the German city of Nuremberg for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. During World War II German military leaders robbed, murdered, imprisoned, and tortured millions of Jews. The Nuremberg trials focused on uncovering the Nazi plan of aggression. Crimes against humanity got the least attention. The trials were seen as fair, and 3 people were actually acquitted. Since the Holocaust, some other war criminals have been brought to trial, but there has been little progress in prosecuting war crimes. Listen to hear more about the Nuremberg Trials and how the ideas from these trials are applied today.
Read MoreOctober 30, 2015
3:18
United States airstrikes killed 22 people in a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that was run by an international aid group, Doctors without Borders. The aid group had given their exact location to the U.S. military, Afghan forces and the Taliban in an effort to avoid being targeted by mistake. Doctors without Borders is calling this act a war crime and the United States is calling this a mistake. Listen to hear about both sides of this issue, and debate your students’ point of view on what constitutes a war crime.
Read MoreApril 19, 2015
7:00
In the wake of the Holocaust during World War II, the word “genocide” was coined, accepted and recognized as a crime. However, the Holocaust may not have been the first modern genocide. Looking back to the World War I, it seems clear that the Ottoman Empire perpetrated a form of genocide against the Armenian population through mass relocation and massacres 100 years ago. Listen to learn more about the Turkish Ottoman Empire during WWI and this dark period of Armenian history.
Read MoreOctober 24, 2014
5:56
Although the concept of genocide has been around for a long time, the word “genocide” is relatively new. A new documentary tells the story of a Polish man who coined the term in 1943, and then advocated for its widespread adoption and recognition. He possessed a strong sense of justice, and he felt determined that crimes related to genocide should be prosecuted. Listen to hear more about this inspirational man and the powerful documentary that tells his story.
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