Posts Written By: hlcadmin

“Operation Reka” Dossier

“Operation Reka” Dossier

dosije_reka_logo_engOn 27 and 28 April 1999, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and Serbian Ministry of Interior (MUP) conducted a joint, large-scale operation named “Operation Reka” in the Kosovo villages lying west of the town of Gjakovë/Đakovica. During the operation, members of Serbian forces killed at least 350 ethnic Albanian civilians, and expelled thousands more to Albania. The mortal remains of 309 victims were found in the secret mass graves in Belgrade suburb in 2001. With the number of victims, the attack against the civilian population in the Reka e Keq/Reka Valley was the gravest crime against civilians committed during the war in Kosovo, and among the gravest of all the crimes committed in the 1990s in the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

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Diplomas Awarded to IV Student Generation at Regional School of Transitional Justice – Youth Dialogue as Prerequisite for Reconciliation

Diplomas Awarded to IV Student Generation at Regional School of Transitional Justice – Youth Dialogue as Prerequisite for Reconciliation

tjs-dodela_diplomaA debate on the role of education in the process of dealing with the legacy of the violent past was held on October 22nd, 2015, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The participants in the debate were Sanja Petrović Todosijević, a historian from the Institute for the Recent History of Serbia, Daša Duhaček, a Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, the Deputy Executive Director of the HLC, Marijana Toma, and students of the fourth generation of the Regional School for Transitional Justice. The topics of the debate were the position of the educational system towards past human rights violations, the role of youth in reconciliation processes and non-institutional (informal) platforms for the provision of support to efforts to teach history on the basis of facts that have been established.

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Students of Regional School of Transitional Justice visit Jasenovac and Vukovar

Students of Regional School of Transitional Justice visit Jasenovac and Vukovar

jasenovac-tjsA one-day visit to memorial sites in Croatia was organized as part of the study programme of the Regional School of Transitional Justice (School). Twenty-five students of the fourth generation of the School visited the memorial monument and the Jasenovac Memorial Museum and the Memorial Centre and memorial monument in Ovčara, near Vukovar. On this occasion, they talked about the culture of remembrance in relation to the crimes committed in these locations.

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Serbia violates international law by refusing to grant the status of civilian war victims to the victims of Sjeverin

Serbia violates international law by refusing to grant the status of civilian war victims to the victims of Sjeverin

sjeverinRegarding the 23rd anniversary since the crime in Sjeverin

On Thursday, 22nd of October, the opening of the memorial to the victims in Sjeverin will mark the 23rd anniversary of the abduction and murders of 16 Serbian citizens of Bosnian nationality. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (the Sandžak Committee) caution that, from the point of view of international law, it is unacceptable for the Republic of Serbia not to approve the status of civilian war victims to the victims of Sjeverin. At the same time, the HLC and the Sandžak Committee state that the engagement of the local community and the municipality of Priboj in the commemoration of this crime and their help in constructing the monument are a rare example of responsible attitude on part of the institutions in the former Yugoslavia towards the victims, who come from an ethnic minority community.

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Compensation of Damages for Former Detainees of Šljivovica and Mitrovo Polje Camps

Compensation of Damages for Former Detainees of Šljivovica and Mitrovo Polje Camps

naknadaThe First Basic Court in Belgrade rendered a judgment on September 19th, 2015, upon the completion of the repeated proceedings, upholding in part the claims made by Ahmet Kamenica and Selim Nuhanović, two Bosniaks who were detained in Šljivovica and Mitrovo Polje camps in Serbia during 1995 and 1996, and obliged the Republic of Serbia to pay the amount of 800,000 RSD in damages for the psychological pain suffered by them. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), which represents Kamenica and Nuhanović in these proceedings, emphasizes that this judgment states precise facts about the torture the prisoners in these camps endured, and that the responsibility of the state for the acts undertaken by the members of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), who managed and protected these camps, was properly established.

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Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice: Education for peace

Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice: Education for peace

tjc_otvaranjeOn October 16th the Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice (the School) opened in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). Those attending the School were welcomed by Mr. Jean-Daniel Ruch, the Swiss Ambassador to Serbia, Almin Škrijelj, Director of the Pravnik (Lawyer) Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Marijana Toma, Deputy Executive Director of the HLC.

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