Surely, after the lessons of the Second World War had been absorbed, Europe could never again experience either genocide or the appeasement of the perpetrators. And yet, almost 50 years later, the west seems to turn a blind eye to the evils of ethnic cleansing, and to draw up boundary proposals that would reward the Serbs with territory taken by conquest.

Stephen Bradshaw reports from Foca, in Bosnia, where innocent civilians have been victims of war crimes, and of history's broken promises, and he names local politicians who failed to intervene and stop these crimes.

The story is one of delay and official obstruction, and of moves to prevent the prosecution of those accused of mass rape and murder.