The Dossier presents the operation of this Yugoslav Army unit during the war in Kosovo and the crimes committed in this unit’s zone of responsibility, where 1,813 Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed, 216 of whom are still registered as missing. None of the perpetrators of these war crimes have been prosecuted to date.
The wars in the former Yugoslavia during the nineteen-nineties left behind a difficult legacy of mass atrocities committed in the countries formed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Around 130,000 people lost their lives, more than 12,000 are still missing and tens of thousands of victims suffered torture and sexual violence. All this is just a part of the horrific outcome of these wars. After a decade of destruction and the collapse of the rule of law that unleashed the violence and systematic violations of fundamental human rights, these countries still face the challenges of consolidating their legal systems, and building democratic institutions which will adopt a responsible attitude towards the violent past and foster a culture of human rights.
Complete analysis of the existing legal framework can be downloaded here.
This Report offers a review of 15 cases in which HLC represented victims and which resulted in court decisions in 2012. There were a total of 18 judgments, 12 of which were negative and six positive, which awarded a total of RSD 1.76 million to victims of human rights abuses.
The Dossier describes operations of this Yugoslav Army unit during the war in Kosovo as well as the crimes committed in its area of responsibility in which more than 2,000 Albanian civilians were killed. There has not been a single trial of persons responsible for these crimes before courts in Serbia.
The subject of this report are relevant events in the transitional justice arena in the successor countries of the former Yugoslavia: trials for war crimes committed in the period 1991-1999, institutional reform referring to lustration, approach that institutions and public have to convicts, media reporting about war crimes, truth commissions, work of civil society organizations on documenting facts about war crimes, resolution of the issue of missing persons, return of refugees, reparations, memorials.
This special issue, whose aim is to contribute to the debate on transitional justice in the Western Balkans, is largely based on two events. One is a day-long seminar entitled ‘European Integration and Transitional Justice: Prospects and Policy Options for Restorative Justice in the Western Balkans’, organised by the former Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Humanitarian Law Centre, Belgrade, held at the European Commission in Brussels in December 2009.
You can download the Report on War Crime Trials in Serbia in 2012 here.
The Report on War Crimes Trials in Serbia in 2011 you can download here.