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Independet Auditor's report for 2009... >>
Based on the research conducted HLC-Kosovo considers the security situation in North Mitrovica/Mitrovicë volatile.... >>
In the period following the toppling of Slobodan Milošević, the transitional government supported domestic war crimes trials, but it soon became clear that serious impediments existed. Police was not willing to share its data on war crimes perpetrators with prosecutors, primarily because most of them belonged to the police.... >>
Every government assumes political responsibility for the deeds and misdeeds of its
predecessor, and every nation for the deeds and misdeeds of the past.
Hannah Arendt, ''Eichmann in Jerusalem''
Documentation and Memory
 
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Vision
In a region plagued by political manipulation of the past, HLC’s painstaking war-crimes documentation based on witness testimonials, oral history, primary records and other relevant and reliable human rights materials significantly contributes to building historical memory of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Investigating and preserving documents about war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia is the essential first step for deterring political revisionism.

Activities
The Documentation and Memory programme unit includes investigation, as well as the collection, building and preservation of war crimes documentation. The backbone of the Documentation and Memory programme unit as well as the whole organisation is the War Crimes Database. HLC investigations comprise interviewing victims and witnesses using the oral history method, and an extensive collection of information from ICTY and national war crimes trials.

Achievements
7,000 HLC witness statements taken
33,000 pages of ICTY trial transcripts produced in B/C/S, including the entire Milosevic trial
7,000 registered victims – killed and missing in the armed conflict in Kosovo and immediately after
35,000 ICTY exhibits and supporting materials copied
3,500 ICTY trial sessions preserved on DVD
6,000 documents archived
1,500 photographs preserved
5,512 database records entered

Additional sources include media archives, international organisations such as the International Commission on Missing Persons, and various domestic and international human rights NGOs. Systematic investigations will build a comprehensive record of citizens of Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo killed and missing in times of armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia. HLC will share this information with its regional partners – the Research and Documentation Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Documenta in Croatia – who are compiling corresponding lists of the killed and missing citizens of their countries, and developing compatible databases. HLC archives original materials it produces and copies of documents received from ICTY and domestic courts, as well as from other sources. This includes witness statements, oral history interviews, photographs, reports on human rights violations and exhumations, as well as video and audio documentation. HLC is the only organisation producing ICTY trial transcripts in B/C/S. So far it has produced these for the Milosevic and Vasiljevic cases.

Future
Investigative capacity: HLC will have the capacity to emulate the “Nazi hunters” of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. HLC investigators will focus on identifying persons about whom there is a serious indication that they have committed or ordered war crimes. The HLC shall present on its internet portal witness statements given before the ICTY and domestic courts as well as statements given to HLC which contribute to identifyingand locating suspects.


Protection of documentation: HLC shall digitize its video archive and hardcopy documentation. It plans to transfer 600 VHS cassettes to DVD and to scan more than 30,000 pages of printed documents.


Expanded war crimes database: HLC would like to expand its current war crimes database to include an estimated 20,000 records of the killed and missing citizens of Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, as well as hundreds of thousands of documents. It will also include entries based on documentation arising from HLC investigations, as well as documents received from state agencies, international and domestic human rights organisations, the Open Society
Archive, and other sources.