REPORT ON WAR CRIMES TRIALS IN SERBIA DURING 2022

The HLC has monitored all war crimes trials conducted in the territory of Serbia in 2022, namely a total of 25 cases conducted before the War Crimes Departments of the Higher Court and/or the Court of Appeal in Belgrade.

The Report provides a brief overview of the proceedings and of the HLC’s basic findings in respect of cases which are of public relevance. A large number of the war crimes cases covered by this Report have been going on for a number of years now, so that previous HLC annual trial reports are also relevant for a full grasp of the course of the proceedings and the pertinent HLC findings.

The report focuses on the work of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) and of the courts in parts of the judicial proceedings open to the public, primarily by analysing the indictments and the judgments in each particular case. An analysis of the work of other bodies involved in the prosecution of war crimes – the War Crimes Investigation Service of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP), the Witness Protection Unit and others, cannot not be undertaken in respect of the individual cases, as no information on their activities is publicly available.

Material reparations in proceedings for damages – The practice of courts in Serbia 2021 – 2022

For a long time, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has been publishing reports on the exercise of the right to compensation for victims of war crimes, through civil proceedings conducted before the courts in Serbia. The last such report covered the period from 2017 to 2020 and was presented to the public in 2021.  This report covers the period from 2021 to the end of 2022.

The obligation of the Republic of Serbia to provide redress to victims of human rights abuses, including in the form of adequate material reparations, remains unchanged. The harm inflicted on individuals and their family members implies the duty of the wrongdoer, the Republic of Serbia in this case, either to remove its harmful effects or to provide the victims with adequate redress.  30 years since the outbreak of the armed conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the Republic of Serbia has not yet fully met this obligation. The political will to face and accept responsibility for past crimes and provide redress to all victims is still absent. As a result, the victims and their family members are forced to pursue their compensation claims through lengthy, costly and often uncertain civil litigation before the courts in Serbia.

(srpski) Povodom početka suđenja Lazaru Mutlaku za silovanje Bošnjakinje u Goraždu

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(srpski) Mediji i revizionizam o ratovima devedesetih u Srbiji – izveštaj i diskusija

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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EVENT: Report Launch: Material reparations in proceedings for damages – the practice of courts in Serbia 2021-2022

On Monday, 24 April 2023, Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) is going to present its report on “Material reparations in proceedings for damages – the practice of courts in Serbia 2021-2022 “ (the Report). The presentation will be held in the large hall of Media Centre Belgrade (Terazije 3, II floor), beginning at 12.30.

The report analyses the course of ongoing court proceedings during the years 2021 and 2022. However, since most procedures have lasted for more than two years, the Report also provides a short overview of the procedures before 2021, to facilitate the tracking.

The Report is divided into two parts. The first part of the Report analyses the individual cases currently adjudicated by the Serbian courts, while the second part renders the main problems identified by HLC during its efforts as the key ones which prevent the victims from exercising their rights to reparations before domestic courts.

Media and Revisionism about the 1990s’ Wars in Serbia

Following the regime change in 2012, the new authoritarian regime under the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) put memory politics high on its political agenda. The revisionist history of the 90s’ wars now constitutes the primary source of its political legitimization. At the same time, the new government established a firm grip over media, leaving a few independent outlets still critical of the new memory politics. A majority of mainstream media operate in symbiosis with the regime, actively contributing to the new revisionist narrative. These narratives are further supported and accelerated in tabloid and alternative media, offering an even more radicalized version of the past. In such a mediascape, actors working on critical memory are limited to a few independent media outlets. At the same time, they are under constant threat from the regime and tabloids alike.

(srpski) Advokat: Okončano deset parnica za naknadu štete žrtvama ratnih zločina JNA u Hrvatskoj

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Discussion: Media and Revisionism about the 1990s Wars in Serbia

On Monday, 10 April 2023, at 6pm, in CROCODILE’s Centre (43 Karađorđeva St, Belgrade), Humanitarian Law Center is organising a discussion on the topic of Media and Revisionism about the 1990s Wars in Serbia.

At the discussion, the eponymous report will be presented, an analysis of historical revisionism of the wars in the nineties in Serbian media from 2000 to date, by author Katarina Ristić, researcher of the Leipzig University.

In the first period, until 2012, media challenged the war facts primarily following the model of “the spiral of silence”, charging the discoveries of the crimes with a deafening noise in public. After 2012, with the new government in office, revisionist narratives have been on the rise, consolidated within media controlled by the state and mushrooming tabloid press. The review also highlights that the new, revisionist history, predominant in the second period, builds on the heroic heroic remembrance of the Serbian army, which is tapped as the source of Serbian pride. This, the idea of Serbian victims is revived, discarding any accountability for crimes.

Trial of Dušan Lončar, JNA commander accused of the crime in Lovas, begins

Trial of Dušan Lončar, former commander of the Second Proletarian Elite Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav People’s Army (2^nd PEMBR), accused of the war crime against civilian population committed on 10 October 1991 in Lovas (the Republic of Croatia), has begun before the War Crimes Department of the Higher Court in Belgrade.

The indictment of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) charges the accused of issuing an order to attack the village of Lovas and its population in the capacity of the JNA’s 2nd PEMBR commander with the rank of colonel, on 9 October 1991. The order instructed that the main forces should block the village and target its facilities with artillery, while the ancillary forces should “cleanse the village of the ZNG and MoI members, as well as of hostile inhabitants “. The following day, 10 October 1991, the forces under Dušan Lončar’s command, acting upon his order, attacked the village and killed “at least 7 civilians“and burnt down several residential buildings.

The fifteenth HLC Dossier on the unpunished crimes of the Serbian Volunteer Guard

On Thursday, 23 March 2023, Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) launched its fifteenth dossier on potential war crime perpetrators during the wars in former Yugoslavia,  The “Serbian Volunteer Guard“ Dossier presents the facts on the creation, structure and characteristics of actions conducted by the Serbian Volunteer Guard (SVG/the Guard), as well as its participation in the crimes perpetrated during the armed conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The Dossier is based on the military and police documents admitted by the International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), as well as on the ascertained facts, statements and testimonials, including those of former Guard members as well as media packages and witness statements collected by HLC’s researchers. During the research, HLC identified 189 SVG members who were under the command of Željko Ražnatović Arkan, whose names are among the annexes to this Dossier.