The BiH justice system continues to show a pattern of bias against Republika Srpska and ethnic Serbs. New evidence came earlier this month when the Court of BiH ordered an armed raid on an RS police station, purportedly to collect evidence. The raid was a radical departure from the well established practice of cooperation between RS and BiH police agencies. More importantly, it was a dangerous, unnecessary, and provocative act that could have easily escalated.
The relationship between RS and BiH-level law enforcement agencies has long been one of professionalism and mutual respect. The RS Ministry of Interior has made it a priority to build even stronger collaboration with SIPA and other law enforcement agencies in BiH. In July, RS Interior Minister Dragan Lukač and Federation Interior Minister Aljoša Čampara signed a memorandum on strengthening police cooperation, including through the formation of joint investigative teams.
The RS Interior Ministry’s cooperation with SIPA has extended to the collection of evidence in war crimes investigations. If SIPA requires evidence in the possession of RS police, it need only ask for it through ordinary procedures. On December 10, however, the Court of BiH granted an extraordinary order sought by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office: for armed SIPA officers to conduct a nighttime raid on an RS police station without any warning to RS officials.
The raid was wholly unnecessary. There was no exigency to justify the raid; it was merely to collect evidence in a decades-old war crimes investigation. RS police would have readily provided SIPA with any available evidence at the police station had they been asked. Moreover, the raid showed extreme disdain and distrust for the RS police by the BiH Court and Prosecutor’s Office. It upset the professional and respectful relations that RS police and SIPA have long maintained. The raid undermines the interagency cooperation that is essential to investigating war crimes and preventing and investigating organized crime and corruption.
Despite the provocative nature of SIPA’s actions, the RS police station provided SIPA access to its facilities. The RS Government, however, responded responsibly to prevent any further provocations by informing the BiH level judicial officials that it would no longer cooperate with the BiH Court, Prosecutor’s Office or SIPA until a new agreement could be reached on the procedures and modalities for collaboration. SIPA has provided to the Interior Ministry a proposed agreement, which the RS Government accepted. SIPA, however, has yet to accept and sign its own agreement.
The raid adds to the already overwhelming evidence showing the BiH justice system’s bias against Serbs. This not only undermines the rule of law and fosters mistrust, but the discriminatory practice of the BiH Court and Prosecutor’s Office, and now SIPA, has become a major obstacle to reconciliation.
Most notably, the BiH justice system has shown a pattern of discrimination against Serb victims of war crimes. The International Crisis Group has criticized the Prosecutor’s Office for its failure to prosecute some of the war’s worst war crimes against Serbs. Even U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Nicholas M. Hill observed this year that the Chief Prosecutor is “largely believed to be heavily influenced by Bosniak political forces” and that there are “complaints that the prosecutor’s office has too many strong-willed SDA acolytes on its staff.” This reluctance is apparent in the BiH justice system’s record. Out of 7,480 Serb civilian war deaths (as estimated by the ICTY), just ten have led to a final conviction in the Court of BiH.
Considerable evidence has been provided to the BiH Prosecutor’ Office on many important war crimes cases involving Serb victims. However, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office has failed to investigate and indict suspects, particularly those who are Bosniaks. One example is the BiH Prosecutor’s Office’s response to evidence linking BiH House of Representatives President Šefik Džaferović—an SDA member—to war crimes by the El Mujahid Detachment. Mirsad Kebo, a former Vice President of the Federation of BiH and former member of the SDA, submitted to the BiH Prosecutor’s Office thousands of pages of evidence of war crimes against Serbs, including evidence that Džaferović was complicit in El Mujahid atrocities. But in March, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office declined even to investigate the evidence.
There is growing disquiet inside and outside BiH about the BiH Prosecutor’s office’s performance in prosecuting war crimes. In an October 2015 interview, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia accused the BiH Prosecutor’s office of failing to sufficiently prosecute war crimes, saying he was “not always convinced all of [the prosecutors] had the commitment to move war crime cases forward.”[1] In October, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported that BiH faces “a lack of political support to prosecute high-level [war crimes] perpetrators and an apparent lack of will among prosecutors to indict.”[2] According to BIRN, the BiH Justice Ministry “said that the prosecution is wasting time on cases that, at a later stage, are transferred to the entities’ judiciaries.”[3]
Earlier this year, UK Judge Joanna Corner, on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), began to conduct an analysis of the war crimes work of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office. But the BiH Prosecutor’s Office refused to give Judge Corner access to its investigations in order for her to conduct the analysis.[4] This adds to the BiH justice system’s reputation for nontransparency.
The BiH justice system’s performance this year, including the recent raid on an RS police station, demonstrates the need for reforms to stop discrimination against Serbs and otherwise align the system with European standards. The RS Government has actively sought such reform through its participation in the EU-sponsored Structured Dialogue for Justice. However, the Structured Dialogue has yet to achieve any changes to the laws or practice related to war crimes prosecutions. The RS proposed a referendum to seek the views of its citizens as part of its efforts to right the wrongly discriminatory practices of the BiH-level judicial system.
___________________________________
[1] Denis Dzidic, Brammertz Warns Bosnia Prosecution on Looming Deadline, BIRN, 8 Oct. 2015.
[2] Marija Tausan, War Crimes Case Backlog Overwhelms Bosnia, BIRN, 23 Oct. 2015.
[3] Marija Tausan, War Crimes Case Backlog Overwhelms Bosnia, BIRN, 23 Oct. 2015.
[4] Denis Dzidic, Bosnian Judiciary Closes War Crimes Files to OSCE, BIRN, 4 Sept. 2015.
