Plea Deals and Trial Delays: Serbia’s Problems with Srebrenica Cases
Although Serbia has been prosecuting some Bosnian Serb ex-soldiers and policemen for crimes committed during the 1995 Srebrenica massacres, the cases have been marred by repeated delays and experts say the final sentences are inexplicably lenient.On July 13 and 14, 1995 Bosnian Serb forces killed 1,313 Bosniak men in the warehouse in the village of Kravica after they were captured following the fall of Srebrenica.
The four names were among those read out by judge Mirjana Ilic at Belgrade Higher Court during a hearing on June 30, when the court was examining evidence including death certificates and DNA findings about the identities of the victims who were found in the Ravnice mass grave and others around Srebrenica.
The court is currently trying seven members of the Republika Srpska Interior Ministry’s Special Police Brigade for their alleged involvement in the executions at the Kravica warehouse.
For 28 years, the institutions of the Republic of Serbia have covered up, denied, and minimized the genocide in Srebrenica. They support, protect, and celebrate those who committed the genocide, while concealing and avoiding the responsibility of state authorities for supporting its execution. Those accused of participating in the Srebrenica genocide are finding refuge in Serbia, while the convicted individuals actively participate in public and political life, free to distort facts and minimize the scale of the genocide. Judicial authorities, including the Office of War Crimes Prosecutor, directly and indirectly delay and obstruct the establishment of facts about the genocide in Srebrenica before domestic courts. The qualification of the Srebrenica crime as genocide is not applied, the number of victims is reduced, and the few convicted perpetrators receive unduly mild sentences. Any connection between Serbian state authorities and the execution of the genocide is carefully concealed in proceedings before domestic courts.
Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) flags the suspicious intentions of the Republic of Serbia’s judicial authorities, evinced by substituting a member of trial chamber in the case of 
