Council of Europe Concerned for the Position of Civilian Victims of War in Serbia

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights addressed a letter on September 12th, 2016 to the Minister of Labour, Employment, Social and Veterans Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vulin, in which he is seeking information about the measures taken by Serbia in order to fulfil the recommendations on comprehensive and just reparations for civilian victims of war, which the Commissioner expressed in his Report on the visit to Serbia in July 2015.

(srpski) Milica Kostić za Al Jazeera o neizboru tužioca za ratne zločine Srbije

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(srpski) Kandidat za tužioca za ratne zločine u petak?

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Radio Television of Vojvodina silences the victims of war

On July 24 2016, the broadcasting of the series “People and Memories Talk”, a documentary programme which recorded the testimonies of victims of all nationalities from the wars in the former Yugoslavia, was suddenly terminated, following a decision made by the new management of Radio Television of Vojvodina (RTV). The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that such a decision is contrary to the Law on Public Information and Media (available in Serbian) and the proclaimed mission of the RTV (available in Serbian), and that it is also an act of censorship and a missed opportunity for a public media service to make a contribution to reconciliation and the normalization of relations with neighbours in the region.

The series was co-produced by the human rights organizations Integra (Kosovo), Documenta (Croatia), HLC (Serbia), Association of of Concentration-camp Detainees “Prijedor ’92” (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the Center for Research and Policy Making (Macedonia). In the series, the victims of all nationalities speak about their sufferings and the fates of their family members who were killed in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo.

(srpski) Ministarstvo odbrane opstruiše istraživanje ratnih zločina

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(srpski) Srbija – mirotvorac kao i uvek

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(srpski) Skup tužilaca u Hrvatskoj bez Srbije: Iznenadne obaveze ili politički uticaj?

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Serbian ‘Spy’ Suspect Arrest Leaves Family Mystified

The sister of Cedo Colovic, a former wartime fighter who has Croatian and Serbian citizenship and was arrested in Serbia for alleged espionage, said his family has been told nothing about his case.

Consequences of Political Tensions on Prosecution of War Crimes: For the first time, Serbia does not participate in the regional conference of war crimes prosecutors

After 12 years of contacts between prosecution offices in the region within the framework of cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes, the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) of the Republic of Serbia for the first time did not participate in the regional conference of war crimes prosecutors, the tenth in the series, which began on the 5th September 2016 in Brijuni, Croatia. This is a dramatic change in long-standing practices, and it is happening at a moment of severely undermined bilateral relations (available in Bosnian) between Serbia and Croatia, and a political crisis (available in Serbian) in the region. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) feels that this is an alarming indicator of political influence being exerted on the judiciary, and points out that the decision on non-participation by the OWCP at the conference is in direct conflict with the obligations which the Republic of Serbia committed itself to with the Action Plan for Chapter 23 and the National Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes.

Ending the silence surrounding secret mass graves and the fates of the missing

At least 130,000 people lost their lives in the wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.  The fates of at least 13,000 individuals remain unknown.

The majority of them disappeared in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina – around 10,000 persons.As of today, the Republic of Croatia is searching for the mortal remains of 930 of its nationals, and holds Serbian institutions and the high command of the former JNA responsible for their disappearance and the subsequent cover-up.