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.

Human rights organizations from Serbia call on the Government and the President of Serbia to support the UN Resolution on the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide

Human rights organizations from Serbia strongly support the adoption of a United Nations resolution designating July 11th as the “International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.”

The facts about the Srebrenica genocide and its legal characterization have been determined beyond reasonable doubt by the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

The first judgment for genocide in Srebrenica was delivered to the Commander of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, Radislav Krstić, in April 2004. The then-president of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, and the wartime commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, Ratko Mladić, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, have also been convicted of genocide, along with Vujadin Popović, Ljubiša Beara, Drago Nikolić and  Zdravko Tolimir.

HLC Submits Criminal Complaints for War Crimes in Kalesija and Vlasenica in 1992

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has filed criminal complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes of the Republic of Serbia, against Slobodan Pajić and Vlastimir Bećarević, former officers of the First Birač Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), on reasonable suspicion that they ordered and/or committed war crimes in the municipalities of Vlasenica and Kalesija during May and June 1992.

The criminal complaints against Pajić and Bećarević are the result of the Humanitarian Law Center’s research into war crimes committed in the zone of responsibility of the First Birač Infantry Brigade under the command of Svetozar Andrić. The HLC presented the findings of this research to the public in late February 2024 in the Dossier “Svetozar Andrić“. The First Birač Infantry Brigade of the VRS, formed in May 1992, participated in the expulsion of the non-Serb population from the municipalities of Zvornik, Vlasenica, and Kalesija, the killing of civilians during the occupation of the territory, and the burning and destruction of villages.

(srpski) PAMTIMO: 31 godina od zločina u Štrpcima

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Kalinovik Case: War Rape Sentence Reduced to Legal Minimum

The Court of Appeals in Belgrade upheld the conviction against Dalibor Krstović, a member of the Republika Srpska Army, for the rape of a Bosniak woman in Kalinovik in August 1992, but radically reduced the sentence from nine to only five years in prison.

The Humanitarian Law Center believes that the reduced sentence of imprisonment of five years, which is the legal minimum for the criminal offence of war crime against civilians, is extremely inappropriate for the gravity of the offence committed, that it does not achieve the purpose of punishment, and that such a punishment is humiliating for the victim. Inadequate punishment of sexual violence in war neglects the lasting consequences such a decision has for the victim: the victim is retraumatised, and the crime itself, as one of the most destructive crimes committed in war, is minimised in relation to other war crimes. Exceeding the accusation to the detriment of the defendant, which the Court of Appeal cites as reason for mitigating the sentence, is not such as to justify that decision.