On Wednesday, February 27th, 2013, it will be 20 years since 19 citizens of Serbia and Montenegro were kidnapped by the Republic of Srpska Army (VRS) from the train station in Štrpci (BiH, Republic of Srpska). Only Nebojša Ranisavljević has been convicted of this crime so far. The institutions in Serbia have not yet recognized the victims of this crime as civilian war victims.
The Higher Court in Belgrade trial chamber rendered a judgment on February 22nd, 2013 convicting members of the “Sima’s Chetniks” paramilitary group, because of war crimes against a civilian population, committed against a group of Roma in 1992 in the vicinity of Zvornik. Zoran Stojanović and Zoran Đurđević from Šabac were sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment each, Zoran Alić and Tomislav Gavrić were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment each, Dragana Đekić and Đorđe Šević were sentenced to five years of imprisonment each, and Damir Bogdanović was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Zoran Alić was released from detention, but confined to his place of residence.
The Court of Appeals in Belgrade has delivered a judgement ordering the Republic of Serbia to pay 200,000 RSD to Sylejman Bajgora from Podujevo/Podujevë, in compensation for torture he endured in 1999 at the hands of members of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia (the MUP of the RS). In the same judgment, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court judgment turning down the compensation claim by Ekrem Nebihu from Glogogovac/Glogoc.
The District Court in Prizren mixed trial panel presided by international Judge Mariola Pasnik[1], rendered a judgment on February 1st, 2013, acquitting the accused Ejup Kabashi and Sokol Bytyqi of charges for the commission of a war crime against civilian population from Article 142 in relation to Article 22 of the Criminal Code of Yugoslavia (the criminal offence which is also incriminated by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo in Article 152 in relation to Article 31).
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The Committee against Torture, the United Nations treaty body entrusted with monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture as well as the interpretation of its provisions, adopted the General Comment No. 3, which defines the obligations of States towards torture victims. These include states obligation to ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible, guarantees of non-repetition, and right to truth. Although general comments are not legally binding, they exceed the advisory nature when dealing with the interpretation of international norms, and when determining the scope and content of certain articles of the Convention.
On the occasion of the acquittal by the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the partial re-trial in Haradinaj et al, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that neither the initial trial nor the partial re-trial in this case have brought justice to the victims of the crimes listed in the indictments. In addition, this procedure has been particularly burdened by a number of deficiencies with regard to witness protection and lack of professionalism of investigators in gathering evidence.
After the Appeals Judgment for Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia highlights that even 17 years later, the most serious crimes committed during the operation “Storm” are without punishment while the victims are without justice and recognition.
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