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SARAJEVO, June 17 (FENA) – Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is processing war crime cases very slowly, despite resources at their disposal, and there has also been a decline in completed procedures, which has been a trend since 2016.
This is one of the findings from the thematic report of the OSCE Mission to BiH on management of war crime cases in procedure before the Prosecutor's Office of BiH for last year, which was presented in Sarajevo today.
Report was presented by Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH Bruce Berton and Head of the EU Delegation to BiH Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, who noted that entity courts have much more success in processing these cases than state ones, which is not a good message.
It was emphasized that the Prosecutor's Office of BiH is not using resources rationally, and "alarming speed of decline in convicting rulings" is especially concerning, as well as quality of investigations and indictments raised by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.
Judiciary in BiH completed only 50 procedures against 82 persons accused of war crimes last year, and 523 procedures with 779 accused persons have been completed since 2004, since the OSCE Mission started monitoring processing of war crime cases in BiH.
Berton noted that citizens have showed high level of patience regarding this issue, adding that if cases continue with this pace, Prosecutor's Office of BiH will need almost 10 years to end all war crime cases it currently has.
Considering the fact that the report also includes series of recommendations, Berton said he hopes that competent authorities will take findings from this report seriously and implement recommendations, and one of them refers to the need to adopt a new State War Crimes Strategy.
Wigemark also warned of lack of this strategy, adding this responsibility not only lies on the parties that participate in the Council of Ministers of BiH, but on everyone.
He reminded that the European Union invested 14 million euros to improve processing of war crime cases in BiH courts.
Berton and Wigemark called competent authorities to be more active and High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) BiH, Prosecutor's Office of BiH and Court of BiH to consider the report carefully, and warned of consequences this practice has on crime victims and legacy judiciary leaves behind.
Presentation was also attended by Chief Prosecutor of BiH Gordana Tadić, who emphasized good cooperation with OSCE, but she also confirmed they disagreed on transferring 150 less complex cases to lower courts.
(FENA) A. B.
