The Public’s Right to Know about War Crimes Trials in Serbia at risk

Due to the frequent removal of the content from the official website of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP), the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) wishes to point out a tendency to put at risk the public’s right to know about the war crimes trials taking place in Serbia. Namely, over the past few weeks, the contents of the war crimes cases that have been processed or are still being prosecuted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade High Court have been removed from the official website of the OWCP.

During previous years, the website of the OWCP was a rare example of the well-designed and satisfactory page of a state body full of content, where the public was able to become acquainted with documentation of cases that had been prosecuted or whose prosecution was ongoing. However, instead of the different sections of this webpage being updated with new content in a timely manner, it is now no longer possible to find submissions of even elementary information regarding previous statistics, cases, indictments, closing arguments or complaints. By removing the stated content, the public’s right to be informed in a continuous and timely manner about the indictments, as well as about the phases of individual war crimes proceedings, has been endangered.

The HLC demands that the OWCP investigate Zoran Tadić regarding his involvement in crimes in Škabrnja

In early March 2019, Zoran Tadić, whom the Croatian authorities suspect of having committed a crime in the Croatian village of Škabrnja in November 1991, fled from Australia, where he had been living since 1992, to Serbia. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) demands that the Office of War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) act on the criminal charges filed by the HLC in 2017 for the crime committed in Škabrnja, and conduct an efficient and effective investigation regarding Tadić’s involvement in this crime.

Criminal Charge for the Missing brothers Abjanović Dismissed

The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) dismissed the criminal charge filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) at the beginning of February 2019, for the crimes against humanity committed in October 1991 in Morović (Šid). It was then that members of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) took the Abjanović brothers from their house, after which every trace of them was lost. The criminal charge was dismissed because, in the interpretation of the OWCP, the prosecution of crimes against humanity violates the principle of legality. With this explanation, the OWCP continues its practice of failing to process crimes against humanity committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, thus denying the right of a large number of victims to finally receive justice.

Sentences for rape of Roma women from Skočić too mild

The Belgrade Court of Appeal rendered a third-instance verdict that reduced the sentences on members of the “Sima’s Chetniks” unit – Tomislav Gavrić, Zoran Đurđević and Zoran Alić – for the inhumane treatment, rape and sexual abuse of three Roma women in the village of Skočić during the second half of 1992. The HLC considers that the policy of lowering the penalty pursued by the courts in Serbia does not lead to just punishment and non-repetition of crimes, nor to justice or compassion for and solidarity with the suffering and pain of war crimes victims.

Crime in Štrpci – 26 years, no justice for victims

Crime in Štrpci – 26 years, no justice for victims

On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, it will be 26 years since the crime in Štrpci, when members of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), gathered at the railway station in Štrpci (Bosnia and Herzegovina), abducted 20 passengers from a train operating on the Belgrade-Bar route, and then killed them. They were all non-Serb civilians. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), Women in Black, the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia, would like to remind the public that the families of these victims have been waiting 26 years for justice from the courts in Serbia, and for recognition of their status as families of civilian victims of war.

The victims of this crime were: Esad Kapetanović, Ilijaz Ličin, Fehim Bakija, Šećo Softić, Rifat Husović, Halil Zupčević, Senad Đečević, Jusuf Rastoder, Ismet Babačić, Tomo Buzov, Adem Alomerović, Muhedin Hanić, Safet Preljević, Džafer Topuzović, Rasim Ćorić, Fikret Memović, Fevzija Zeković, Nijazim Kajević, Zvjezdan Zuličić and one unidentified person.

Husein Mujanović should be extradited to BiH

At the end of July 2018, members of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP) arrested BiH citizen Husein Mujanović on the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), for crimes allegedly committed in the Hrasnica camp (Sarajevo) in 1992. On December 24, 2018, The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) filed an indictment against Mujanović, who is still in custody in Serbia. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia believe that the obligation of the authorities in Serbia is to extradite Mujanović to the judicial authorities of BiH, whose citizen he is, and thus show their intention to promote good neighbourly relations and regional cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes.

Mujanović was arrested on the basis of a warrant that Serbia has issued, on the suspicion that in 1992, at Hrasnica, Sarajevo, as the guard at the camp, he abused Serb civilians. As Mujanović has been detained since July and the OWCP has filed an indictment against him, the Serbian judicial authorities have expressed the clear intention to try Mujanović before a court in Serbia. Although the Law on the Organization and Competence of Government Authorities in War Crimes Proceedings, from 2003, allows the OWCP to prosecute nationals of any country for crimes committed on the territory of the whole of the former Yugoslavia (the principle of universal jurisdiction), the HLC and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia believe that the OWCP should hand over all the evidence it possesses against Mujanović to the competent authorities of BiH, in order for him to be tried in BiH. Each country to have emerged from the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia should primarily prosecute its own citizens for war crimes committed, as it sends a message to the other countries of the region that it is ready to deal with crimes committed by its citizens and has the intention of normalizing relations in the region.

For this reason, the HLC and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia call on the competent institutions in Serbia to abandon the application of the principle of universal jurisdiction, which deepens the distance and mistrust between the states in the region, thereby also further hindering the effective prosecution of war crimes.

Comments of the HLC on the first draft of the Action Plan for Chapter 23

On Friday, February 8, 2019, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) submitted to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) comments on the first draft of the revised Action Plan for Chapter 23 (draft of revised Action Plan), relating to jurisdiction. The HLC considers that, in the part relating to war crimes, the MoJ did not conduct a thorough analysis of the activities that the state authorities responsible for the processing of war crimes were obliged to implement on the basis of the existing Action Plan, and that the draft revised Action Plan does not reflect the real situation in the area relating to war crimes.

Initiative for Assessment of the Constitutionality of the Law on Free Legal Aid

On 25^th December 2018, the Humanitarian Law Center submitted to the Constitutional Court of Serbia an initiative for assessing the constitutionality and compliance of the Law on Free Legal Aid (ZBPP) with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, generally accepted rules of international law and ratified international conventions. The HLC considers the legal solutions foreseen in the ZBPP on the one hand deny equal access to justice to citizens, since they exclude a wide range of persons who could be users of free legal aid, whilst, on the other hand, they narrow down the circle of providers of free legal aid, leaving a large number of Serbian citizens without adequate legal protection.

At the end of November 2018, the National Assembly adopted the ZBPP, although its actual implementation was postponed until 1^st October 2019. The debate on various proposals of this law lasted for over a decade, and one of the biggest obstacles to its adoption was the disagreement between bar associations in Serbia and citizens’ associations regarding the issue of who can provide free legal aid. For this reason, the HLC considers one of the most controversial provisions of the ZBPP to be  Article 9, which provides that free legal aid can only be provided  by lawyers, local self-government units and  organizations providing free legal assistance in the fields of protection against discrimination and asylum. The organizations dealing with issues that do not include protection against discrimination and asylum cannot provide free legal aid, but free legal support exclusively, as reflected in administrative matters such as, for example, filling in  forms.

Draft Law on War Veteran and Disability Rights retains provisions that discriminate against civilian victims of war

On Friday 21 December 2018, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) submitted to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Veteran and Social Affairs (Ministry) its comments on the Draft Law on Veteran and Disability Benefits (Draft Law). In the comments the HLC points out that the public consultation process that preceded the preparation of the draft law was non- transparent and that the text of the Draft Law, instead of improving the position of civilian victims of war, maintains the discriminatory provisions contained in the law currently in effect, as a result of which civilian victims of war are put in an unfavourable position in relation to military victims of war.

In early August 2018, the Ministry established a working group to draft a law which would comprehensively regulate the rights of war veterans. Only members of war veteran and disabled servicemen associations were invited to participate in the working group. Associations of civilian victims, gathered around the Alliance of Serbian Associations of the Families of Missing Persons from the Territory of the former Yugoslavia, as well as interested experts in the field and other stakeholders were excluded from the process. Moreover, apart from announcing that the working group had been set up, the Ministry did not publish either of the two versions of the Draft Law on its website for comments. It was from the website of the Association of Disabled Wartime and Peacetime Veterans of Serbia that the HLC got hold of the Draft Law dated 9 December 2018. By not publishing the Draft Law on its website and not including associations of war-disabled civilians and civilian victims of war in the consultation process, the Ministry made it impossible for those interested parties to contribute their views on the proposed legislation.

On the occasion of the judgement of the Higher Court in Belgrade in the case against Ranka Tomić

On November 26, 2018, the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade Higher Court issued a judgment finding Ranka Tomić, the leader of the “Petrovac Women’s Front” unit which was under the command of the Petrovac Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), together with other members of the unit she was captain of, guilty of the torture and inhumane treatment of the war prisoner Karmena Kamenčić in mid-July 1992 in the village of Radić (Bosanska Krupa), and sentenced her to five years in prison. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) considers that the court rendered the right decision by convicting Ranka Tomić, but found that the sentence imposed was too mild, bearing in mind the manner in which Karmena Kamenčić was tortured and later killed.