Your Honor,
As nongovernmental organizations for human rights, we believe that a person convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, should not be commutation of sentence if they have not publicly addressed the families of their victims, expressing sincere regret and clearly demonstrating a readiness to help identify the perpetrators of specific crimes and reveal mass graves.
We are addressing you in regard to the possible paroling of Vlastimir Đorđević, sentenced to 18 years in prison for participation in a joint criminal enterprise, which included the crimes of murder, deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts. He was convicted in connection with the deportation of at least 200,000 Kosovo Albanians from 13 municipalities in Kosovo, the murder of at least 724 ethnic Albanians, and the forced relocation of the bodies of victims and their concealment in mass graves in the territory of Serbia. The ICTY Appeals Chamber established that Đorđević, as Head of the Public Security Department with the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, ordered the bodies of Kosovo Albanians be buried in mass graves in the territory of Serbia, in order to remove evidence of the crimes committed, as well as that he “clearly issued orders related to the clandestine handling of the bodies, their transportation and reburial.”
To this day, mass graves containing around 950 bodies of Kosovo Albanians have been discovered so far in the territory of Serbia. The fates of 1,092 more Kosovo Albanians who disappeared during the armed conflicts in Kosovo remain unresolved.
We, as nongovernmental organizations for human rights from Serbia and Kosovo, request of you to invite the convicted offender Đorđević to divulge vitally needed information on the remaining mass graves in Serbia containing the bodies of slain Albanians, information on the participants in the “arrangements”, and information as to the persons who shot the three Bytyqi brothers.
Signatories:
- A11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights
- Admovere
- Astra
- Atina
- Autonomous Women’s Center
- Balkansgroup
- BIRN Kosova
- Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies CEAS
- Center for Human Rights Nis
- Center for regionalism
- Center of Modern Skills
- Civic Action Pancevo
- Civil Rights Defenders
- Civil Rights Program Kosovo
- Cultural Centre DamaD
- forumZFD, Kosovo
- forumZFD, Serbia
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
- Humanitarian Law Center
- Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo
- Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina
- Integra
- Internews Kosova
- Kosova Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims
- Kosova’s Women Network
- Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development
- Lawers’ Committee for Human Rights YUCOM
- Open Society Foundation Serbia
- Pescanik
- Reconstruction Women’s Fund
- Sandzak committee for protection of human rights and freedoms
- Youth Initiative for Human Rights Kosovë
- Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia
- Women in Black
On Friday, 6th December 2019, at 11:00 a.m., the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) will present its “Policy paper: Enhancing the rights and position of victims and witnesses in war crimes trials in Serbia”. The presentation will take place in the Main Conference Hall of the Media Center in Belgrade (Terazije 3, 2nd floor).
From November 5 to 10, 2019, the Sixth Transitional Justice School (TJ School) of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) was held. The TJ School was attended by 18 students of law, political science, history, Scandinavian languages and sociology, as well as activists from Serbian non-governmental organisations.
