#weremember: Camps for Croats in Serbia

Between September 1991 and August 1992, several camps and transit centers existed on the territory of Serbia for captured fighters and civilians from Croatia. In these facilities, detainees were subjected to daily psychological and physical abuse.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) recalls that on this day 33 years ago, Croatian forces and civilians were detained and taken to the camp at the “Livade” farm in the village of Stajićevo near Zrenjanin (Serbia), which was established by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). This occurred after the JNA, the Serbian Territorial Defense (TO) of Vukovar, and paramilitary units from Serbia captured Vukovar on November 18, 1991. Besides Stajićevo, detainees were sent to camps in Sremska Mitrovica, Aleksinac, and Niš, as well as to the Military Investigative Prison in Belgrade and the camp in Begejci, which had been operational since September. All those camps except the one in Niš, which was under the responsibility of the JNA’s 3^rd Military District, were under the jurisdiction of the 1^st Military District. The camps were guarded by members of the JNA Military Police.

#WeRemember: The Killing of Prisoners of War at Ovčara

This Wednesday, November 20, 2024, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) commemorates the victims of the crime committed at the Ovčara farm near Vukovar. On this day 33 years ago, members of the local Territorial Defense (TO) and Serbian volunteers under the command of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) killed 265 Croatian civilians and prisoners of war.

As soon as they took control of Vukovar on November 20, 1991, members of the JNA removed the wounded, the sick, civilians, and members of the Croatian armed forces from the Vukovar hospital and transported them to the hangars at the Ovčara farm, located about five kilometers southeast of Vukovar. In the presence of members of the JNA Military Police, the Croatians detained at Ovčara were beaten, abused, and humiliated by members of the Vukovar TO and the “Leva Supoderica” paramilitary unit. In the evening, on the orders of Colonel Mile Mrkšić, JNA troops withdrew from Ovčara, leaving the detainees at the mercy of the Vukovar TO and the “Leva Supoderica” unit. During the night of November 20/21, 1991, the detainees were taken from the hangar in groups of 10 to 20 people to the Grabovo site, where they were executed in front of a pre-dug mass grave. The victims killed at Ovčara included wounded members of the Croatian armed forces, as well as civilians, including two women and three minors: Ružica Markobašić (32), who was heavily pregnant at the time, Janja Podhorski (60), Dragutin Balog (17), Igor Kačić (16), and Tomislav Baumgertner (17).

HLC submits comments to draft criminal justice legislation

The proposed amendments would lead to a backsliding in standards, instead of improving the legal framework

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has today submitted to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia its comments on the text of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code(CPC) and on the Draft Law on the Amendments to the Criminal Code (CC).

After pointing out that one month’s timeframe for public consultations is unduly short, the HLC would like to emphasise that the proposed amendments to the two organic criminal laws not only fail to contribute to the improvement of criminal legislation, but actually undermine the standards achieved standards.

On 12 May 2021, the Ministry of Justice established the working groups to amend the CPC and CC. The public was informed of their activities for the first time on 26 September of 2024, when a call for public consultations was announced. After three years of non-transparent work by the working groups, the Ministry left only one month for public debate on the two systemic penal laws. This is unacceptable. During this time, it has been practically impossible to become familiar with all the proposed amendments, analyse their implications and offer adequate solutions.

(srpski) Sjeverin – 32 godine čekanja na pravdu

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Criminal Complaint for Wartime Sexual Violence in Foča

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), on August 16, 2024, submitted a criminal complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes (PPOWC) of the Republic of Serbia against two individuals, members of Serbian volunteer units, for the rape of two Bosniak women in the Zubovići settlement near Foča, as well as the arrest and detention of civilians in detention facilities in the Foča area in April 1992.

On April 14, 1992, individuals identified as DEDA and PERO, along with about twenty other members of the Serbian forces operating within the Foča Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, led by Gojko Janković, carried out an armed attack on the village of Zubovići. Armed soldiers, firing automatic weapons, reached the Mezbur family home, where more than 30 civilians, mostly women and children and a few men, were hiding. The Serbian forces separated the men from the women and children by force, loaded them onto a truck, and took them to the Livade camp (a former weapon depot of the Yugoslav People’s Army), and later to the KP Dom detention facility in Foča.

Marking 29 years since Operation “Storm” – the Political Abuse of Remembrance

On the occasion of marking the 29^th anniversary of the military-police operation “Storm”, during and after which Croatian forces committed widespread and systematic crimes against the Serbian civilian population and their property, the Humanitarian Law Center reiterates its longstanding demand that the authorities and institutions in Serbia grant the victims the status of civilian war victims, and that they cease their political abuse of the memory of those who perished.

None of the victims of Operation “Storm” living in Serbia can yet exercise their rights, as the current legal framework not only fails to meet the needs of the victims, but also discriminates against those whose injuries occurred outside the territory of Serbia. This leaves civilian invalids and the families of the victims of Operation “Storm” without financial, health, or psychosocial support from any of the relevant institutions.

MUP to Withdraw the Ban on the Festival “Mirëdita, dobar dan!”

The Humanitarian Law Center expresses its protest against the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia to ban the festival “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” and demands that Minister Ivica Dačić urgently revoke the decision and ensure the peaceful conduct of this cultural event.

The institutions of the Republic of Serbia are obliged to provide their citizens and all participants of the festival with freedom of expression and movement, as well as to guarantee safety during the festival.

(srpski) Saopštenje povodom izjave Aleksandra Šapića o festivalu Mirëdita, dobar dan

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On the occasion of the election of the Chief Public Prosecutor for War Crimes

The High Prosecutorial Council (HPC) is in the process of selecting the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Public Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (POWCP). Snežana Stanojković has applied for the position again. She held the position until the end of her term on 31 May 2023, when she continued to hold it as Acting Prosecutor.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) points out that it is necessary for a new prosecutor to be elected within the legal deadline, i.e. by the end of May, in order to avoid the problems that arose in the earlier period, when the Republic of Serbia did not have a prosecutor for war crimes for 17 months. Such a drastic delay in the election of a chief prosecutor jeopardised the conduct of war crimes proceedings, since the deputy prosecutors for war crimes in the period from 1 January 2016 to 31 May 2017, when Stanojković took office, did not have the authority to raise and represent indictments or take any actions in the proceedings.

The position of the Humanitarian Law Center is that Snežana Stanojković should not be re-elected as the Chief Public Prosecutor for War Crimes, as her previous work has shown extremely poor results, and incompetence in the performance of her function, and has led to the collapse of the credibility of the Public Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor. Stanojković’s mandate was marked by the small number of indictments, the non-transparent work of the Prosecutor’s Office, the lack of communication with the public, and the assessment of fellow prosecutors that her work was unprofessional.

Too little, too late: After 14 years, the first-instance verdict was pronounced for crimes in the Kosovo villages of Ćuška, Ljubenić, Pavljan and Zahać

Fourteen years after the original indictment was filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes (PPOWC), the Higher Court in Belgrade, on 24 April 2024, issued a first-instance verdict in the retrial for war crimes committed in the villages of Ljubenić, Ćuška, Pavljan and Zahać during April and May 1999.

The court sentenced to 20 years in prison the defendant Toplica Miladinović, commander of the 177^th Military-Territorial detachment (177^th VTO) Peć, a unit under the command of the 125^th Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav Army (VJ). In the same verdict, the court also found guilty six members of the 177^th VTO Peć, and sentenced Predrag Vuković to 13 years in prison, Abdulah Sokić to 12 years, Siniša Mišić to five years, and Slaviša Kastratović, Lazar Pavlović and Boban Bogićević to two years each. Veljko Korićanin and Milan Ivanović were acquitted of all charges.