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Praise and Blame for BiH

01 February 2008  A Human Rights Watch report has noted that the local judiciary has made significant progress in the processing of war crimes indictees, but has also noted a range of deficiencies.

In the World Report on the State of Human Rights in 2008, published annually by Human Rights Watch (HRW), special attention has once again been paid to Bosnia and Herzegovina.


This time, HRW assesses that the war crime processing before the local courts was positive, noticing significant progress in comparison to the previous years.


In this report, HRW experts concluded that processing of war crime indictees and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has progressed to a significant extent. However, the organisation express concerns in relation to "way too many closed hearings and inadequate openness towards the public".


The report also presents concerns over determining priorities when it comes to processing of persons responsible for war crimes in BiH, as well as "poor protection of witnesses, lack of financial resources and limited political support" at lower courts in the Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and Brcko District.


HRW noticed that the "lack of will" of the Regional Court in Banja Luka to treat sexual crimes as war crimes has caused "criticism within the country".


The report further alleges that 36 cases, treating persons responsible for having participated in war crimes, were recorded before lower courts in BiH in the course of 2007.


The report gave positive comments concerning the cooperation between the local and Serbian authorities, as well as the international forces in BiH, as it resulted in the arrest of Zdravko Tolimir, former assistant commander for intelligence and security affairs of the Republika Srpska Army General Staffs in May 2007. After the arrest, Tolimir was transferred to the ICTY.


According to HRW, the extradition of Gojko Klickovic, who was indicted by the Prosecution of BiH for war crimes, by Serbia to BiH was assessed as a step forward in regional cooperation.


In the course of 2007 the ICTY referred the case of Milorad Trbic, charged with genocide, to local judicial authorities for further processing. The process against him has already commenced in Sarajevo.
In parallel, the ICTY Appeals Chamber rendered a decision to process Milan and Sredoje Lukic, charged with crimes in Visegrad, before the ICTY due to "the scope of the crime and possible mental suffering of the victims", although the Prosecution filed a motion for their referral to Sarajevo.


HRW also noticed that an Entity-level problem concerning the non-existence of a strategy for systematic dealing with suits requesting compensation for death and injuries made during the war, "which leads to a further increase in the number of suits".


The report also indicates that, in February 2007, the International Court of Justice rendered a decision pronouncing Serbia directly responsible for the genocide, which made the associations of victims in BiH organise peaceful protests, as the decision made them feel desperate.


The HRW report also noticed that a number of missing persons, mainly Bosniaks, have still not been found even though more than 15 years have passed since the end of the war.


Concerning the work of the police, HRW points out that, in June 2007 the High Representative dismissed Dragomir Andan, a senior official of Republika Srpska police, for allegedly protecting war crimes fugitives. The OHR also dismissed 35 policemen for their alleged participation in the genocide committed in Srebrenica in the course of 1995.


The Prosecution of BiH, which is conducting an investigation against the suspended policemen, submitted a report, early this year, to the RS Police on the findings of the investigation.