Bosnia ‘Must Speed Up’ War Crimes Probes
10 July 2008 International rights group Human Rights Watch has urged authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to reform entity courts and laws so to speed up war crimes investigations.
Joshua Franco, researcher with Human Rights Watch, noted in the
report, entitled “Still Waiting”, four major recommendations: improve witness
support and protection programmes, harmonise laws and court procedures between the
two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the Republika Srpska and the Federation
as well as of Brcko district, enlarge the prosecutors’ offices and resources,
and strengthen the outreach and information programmes to inform the public.
A large number of cases of crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war are now
before Bosnian district and cantonal courts, though the exact number is in
dispute. The State prosecutor’s office estimated the number to be between
13,000 and16,000, though that figure is widely disputed.
Human Rights Watch has urged authorities to speed up the trials.
Many witnesses have emigrated, are aging or have died. In
addition, witnesses often have testified before or been interviewed by both
district and cantonal courts, leading to the phenomenon of witness fatigue,
where witness testimonies change over time.
The scarcity of physical evidence makes witness testimonies the principal form
of evidence in war crimes trials.
The report recommends that courts improve witness support and protection
services to mitigate witness intimidation, as well as streamline legal
proceedings in the Republika Srpska and Federation to create a uniform process
of evidence collection and base of information to prevent witnesses from having
to testify over and over again.
“Often evidence exists across national and entity borders,” said Franco, “and
justice must be comparable at all levels.” Regional cooperation and the
addition of special investigators and war crimes experts to understaffed
prosecutors’ offices will facilitate the collection of evidence, the report
notes.
Prosecutor’s offices usually have the most complete information regarding individual
cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, argues Wanda
Troszczyncka-van Genderen, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.
The creation and expansion of public outreach programs to explain court
processes and disseminate their findings and verdicts to victims and other
citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina is essential to “ensuring that trials have
[a] meaningful impact” and that “members of different communities accept a
common understanding of the events of the war,” the report states.
This is a critical moment for the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Franco and
Troszczyncka-van Genderen agreed.
“The state is the only organisation with the power to remove obstacles to a
uniform, basic scheme available to everyone,” said Troszczyncka-van Genderen.
The full report is available at http://hrw.org/reports/2008/bosnia0708
Justice Report is a
specialist reporting agency focusing on war crimes trials taking place before
local courts; development of the local legal system; and efforts to come to
terms with the past.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
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