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Truth Commission Activists Plan Yugoslav ‘Book of the Dead’

Truth Commission Activists Plan Yugoslav ‘Book of the Dead’
BalkanInsight_logoThe Coalition for RECOM, which is campaigning to establish a regional truth commission for the Yugoslav wars, is working to create the first full list of all those killed in the Balkan conflicts from 1991 to 2001.

The Coalition for RECOM, a cross-border campaign to set up a truth commission to establish the full facts about the Yugoslav wars, has failed so far to get the unanimous support of governments across the region.

Despite this, however, the coalition says that it will push on with researching a full list of all those who were killed, imprisoned, tortured or went missing during the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia, some of its members told BIRN.

The coalition, an alliance of NGOs in post-Yugoslav countries, last year published a map that documents war victims in the former Yugoslavia and presents data on around 130,000 people who were killed or went missing in the various conflicts.


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Serbia: A Year of Denying War Crimes

Serbia: A Year of Denying War Crimes
BalkanInsight_logoWar criminals were celebrated, verdicts convicting Serbs were questioned and atrocities were denied, while Serbian prosecutors again failed in 2019 to indict any high-ranking suspects for crimes committed in the 1990s conflicts.

On May 9, retired Yugoslav Army general Vladimir Lazarevic, a convicted war criminal, headed a World War II Victory Day parade through the streets of the southern Serbian city of Nis. The showpiece event was organised by Russian war veterans with the backing of the Serbian authorities.

Lazarevic’s prominent role in the parade highlighted how in 2019, Serbian officials continued their practice of celebrating war criminals as military heroes.


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Bosnian War Crime Cases Halted as Ageing Defendants Die

Bosnian War Crime Cases Halted as Ageing Defendants Die
BalkanInsight_logoAround 20 people indicted for 1990s wartime crimes in Bosnia have died over the past five years, causing the cases to be halted, while ten more cases are at a standstill because the defendants are ill.

More than two decades have gone by since the end of the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the passing years have taken an increasing toll on war crimes cases.

Around 20 indicted suspects have died over the past five years without any final verdict being delivered in their cases, causing consternation among war victims’ associations, who have expressed anger that justice has not been done.

The Bosnian state court also said that ten cases were currently at “a standstill” due to defendants’ illnesses.


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