First victims’ testimonies at trial for crime in Trnje

First victims’ testimonies at trial for crime in Trnje

Logo FHPThe trial against an officer and a non-commissioned officer in the Serbian Army, Pavle Gavrilović and Rajko Kozlina, for the crime committed against a civilian population in the village of Trnje in March 1999, continued on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 27th and 28th, 2015, in Courtroom 2 of the Special Court. After the postponement of the previous five main hearings, victims and eyewitnesses of the crime will appear for the first time to testify in the trial session.

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“Operation Reka“ Dossier Presented

“Operation Reka“ Dossier Presented

Logo_FHP The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented the „Operation Reka“ Dossier on October 23rd, 2015. The Dossier offers an overview of the events which occurred on April 27th and 28th, 1999, in the villages located west of the town of Đakovica in Kosovo, when the comprehensive joint operation by Yugoslav Army (VJ) and the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) called „Operation Reka“ was launched. During this Operation, members of the Serbian forces killed at least 350 civilians – Kosovo Albanians, and deported several thousand other civilians to Albania. The bodies of 309 victims were found in 2001 in secret mass grave sites in a suburb of Belgrade. The youngest victim was 15 years old.

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“Operation Reka” Dossier

“Operation Reka” Dossier

dosije_reka_logo_engOn 27 and 28 April 1999, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and Serbian Ministry of Interior (MUP) conducted a joint, large-scale operation named “Operation Reka” in the Kosovo villages lying west of the town of Gjakovë/Đakovica. During the operation, members of Serbian forces killed at least 350 ethnic Albanian civilians, and expelled thousands more to Albania. The mortal remains of 309 victims were found in the secret mass graves in Belgrade suburb in 2001. With the number of victims, the attack against the civilian population in the Reka e Keq/Reka Valley was the gravest crime against civilians committed during the war in Kosovo, and among the gravest of all the crimes committed in the 1990s in the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

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Diplomas Awarded to IV Student Generation at Regional School of Transitional Justice – Youth Dialogue as Prerequisite for Reconciliation

Diplomas Awarded to IV Student Generation at Regional School of Transitional Justice – Youth Dialogue as Prerequisite for Reconciliation

tjs-dodela_diplomaA debate on the role of education in the process of dealing with the legacy of the violent past was held on October 22nd, 2015, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The participants in the debate were Sanja Petrović Todosijević, a historian from the Institute for the Recent History of Serbia, Daša Duhaček, a Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, the Deputy Executive Director of the HLC, Marijana Toma, and students of the fourth generation of the Regional School for Transitional Justice. The topics of the debate were the position of the educational system towards past human rights violations, the role of youth in reconciliation processes and non-institutional (informal) platforms for the provision of support to efforts to teach history on the basis of facts that have been established.

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Students of Regional School of Transitional Justice visit Jasenovac and Vukovar

Students of Regional School of Transitional Justice visit Jasenovac and Vukovar

jasenovac-tjsA one-day visit to memorial sites in Croatia was organized as part of the study programme of the Regional School of Transitional Justice (School). Twenty-five students of the fourth generation of the School visited the memorial monument and the Jasenovac Memorial Museum and the Memorial Centre and memorial monument in Ovčara, near Vukovar. On this occasion, they talked about the culture of remembrance in relation to the crimes committed in these locations.

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Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice: Education for peace

Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice: Education for peace

tjc_otvaranjeOn October 16th the Fourth Regional School of Transitional Justice (the School) opened in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). Those attending the School were welcomed by Mr. Jean-Daniel Ruch, the Swiss Ambassador to Serbia, Almin Škrijelj, Director of the Pravnik (Lawyer) Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Marijana Toma, Deputy Executive Director of the HLC.

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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Presentation of the “Operation Reka” Dossier

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Presentation of the “Operation Reka” Dossier

Fond_Logo_200_200On October 23th, 2015 the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) will present the “Operation Reka” Dossier. The Presentation will take place at the Grand Hall of the Media Centre in Belgrade (Terazije 3, I floor) at 12,00 a.m.

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The HLC on the disappeared persons in the OSCE meeting

The HLC on the disappeared persons in the OSCE meeting

osze-odihr-logoA side event dedicated to the fight against enforced disappearances in the OSCE region was held on Friday, 25 September 2015, as part of the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of OSCE Participating States. The meeting, under the title of Combatting Enforced Disappearances in the OSCE Region – Progress and Way Forward, was organized by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. On behalf of the Humanitarian Law Center, Jelena Krstic presented the efforts to determine the fates of the people who went missing in the context of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the Western Balkans region. The meeting was also attended by the Chairman of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), Professor Emmanuel Decaux, a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo and former chairman of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mads Andenaes, and Bayram Shikhmuradov from Turkmenistan.

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SIT Students’ Visit

SIT Students’ Visit

poseta_studenataStudents of the School for International Training (SIT) visited the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on Tuesday, 29 September 2015. The students attend various universities in the US, and they are staying in Serbia as part of the SIT Peace Study Programme organized within the Center for Comparative Conflict Studies at the Faculty of Media and Communications.  

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The debate on Srebrenica: Recognition is necessary for reconciliation

The debate on Srebrenica: Recognition is necessary for reconciliation

srebrenica-engA documentary film entitled “Statement 710399” was shown last night in Belgrade Center for Cultural Decontamination. Following the screening there was a debate on the legacy of the genocide in Srebrenica, the possibilities of building trust and common remembrance, and the importance of court-established facts. Taking part in the debate were the film’s author and former spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Refik Hodzic, director of the SENSE – Center for Transitional Justice Mirko Klarin, a culturalist and activist from Banja Luka Srdjan Susnica, chief editor of the publishing house “Fabrika Knjiga” and columnist of the portal “Pescanik” Dejan Ilic and professor at the Faculty of Law of Union University in Belgrade Vesna Rakic Vodinelic.

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