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Threats to human right activist in Bosnia

29 July 2008  A key human rights activist in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity has received threats against his life.

Ten days ago Branko Todorovic, President of Helsinki Committee of Republika Srpska, received a warning saying that "his life is in danger." The Committee staff believe that this threat is associated with recent statements given by some Committee representatives, who criticised the work of local authorities related to war crimes investigations.

"On Tuesday, July 22 we received a phone call from a male person, who wanted us to pass an urgent message to Branko Todorovic that a large amount of money had been paid for his execution, advising him to leave the town and the country as soon as possible as his life was in danger. The person also said that Branko came into conflict with the police and prosecution, adding that his and his family's murder had been planned for a while," Justice Report is told by the Committee.

As indicated by the Helsinki Committee, this incident was immediately reported to the police, which informed the Committee that an investigation was opened.

Todorovic says that he personally visited the police station, but, at this stage, he does not have confidence in the police.

"Talking to the police does not make me feel safe. We have no reasons to trust the police authorities, considering the earlier experiences related to other human rights activists. I must say that there are still many structures with the Republika Srpska police, which took part in the war, and some even participated in war crimes, but they are now supportive of democratic changes, human rights and all other things we uphold in our work," Todorovic said.

Todorovic points to the fact that other persons in Republika Srpska have also been threatened, adding that, even when those threats were effectuated, the police never identified the perpetrators.

At the same time, Todorovic indicates that, in Republika Srpska the working conditions for non-government organisations becomes worse every day, adding that they are pressured and intimidated. He mentioned the case of Transparency International, TI, as an example. This organisation suspended its regular activities "for security reasons" on July 10. TI went on with its activities this week, after having received support from numerous international organisations.

"In any case we shall try to continue with our work. I think that, at this stage, it is very important for us to receive support from other NGOs and media. Nevertheless, we must admit that we are overly stressed," Todorovic said.

Helsinki Committee staff claim to have received threats before but they consider the last threat to be "a serious" one.

"The current environment in the RS encourages extreme forces, associated to war criminals, criminals who have connections in Serbia and all those who are against the people, who want to fight crime or war crimes," Branko Todorovic said.

In his recent public statements Branko Todorovic spoke about the work of the prosecution in Bijeljina, claiming that it had not opened one single war crimes investigation since the end of the war. Todorovic claims that the persons, whose names are mentioned in The Hague’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia verdicts, hold senior positions in Republika Srpska institutions.

"If each local court in Bosnia and Herzegovina would take over the documents enlisted in those verdicts, it could sentence those persons for crimes they undoubtedly committed," Todorovic said.

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights has been active in Republika Srpska as of May 1996. Since its establishment, the Committee has worked on the promotion, protection and monitoring of the state of human rights in Republika Srpska and the region.