PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES

Challenges In Prosecuting War Crimes: the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina



Abstract

The paper describes about the War crimes prosecution has been the dominant tool of addressing war crimes committed during the four-year-long conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992- 1995). The prosecution has been conducted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and in the local courts. The paper will address the effectiveness of war crimes prosecution as a tool for combating future crimes, taking into account the accomplishments and shortcomings at all levels- international, national and local.

Challenges In Prosecuting War Crimes: the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Introduction

A war crime is a violation of the protections provided by the laws and customs of war, consisting of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in armed conflict and violations of international law. The term is defined in large part on international law, including the Geneva Convention. The mistreatment of prisoners of war and civilians and genocide are considered war crimes.

Discussion and Analysis

Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter BiH) is a country where horrendous crimes were committed during the 1992-1995 war. This article will discuss the war crimes prosecution that followed the war and will touch upon how prosecution can potentially be used as a tool against future crimes, especially genocide. Successes and shortcomings of the prosecution effort will be explored along with the question of what lessons can be learned from the prosecutions that followed the war in Bosnia. The observations presented are based on several years of working in the war crimes prosecution in Sarajevo, but also regularly following the trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The observations made are the ones of a practitioner; after interviews and conversations I have had with prosecutors and judges, journalists, human rights activists, academics and others heavily involved in the war crimes prosecution system. Academic work informed this article but the conclusions are based on practical experience.

For the past 17 years, after the Dayton Accords ended the war, the country has been divided, its administrative structure highly complex. BiH has fourteen governments (incapacity by local authorities to form government's post-election makes this number currently lower). The country is divided into two entities and one autonomous district. There is one government for the country as a whole, one for each entity: the Federation with a majority of Bosniaks and Croats (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH); Republika Srpska (RS) with a predominantly Serb population and Brcko District that does not have such a clear majority. It is estimated that the country has just over 4.5 million inhabitants but conclusive data is unavailable as the last census was conducted on the eve of war in 1991. The population is ethnically diverse with the majority, just above 45 percent Bosniak (Muslim), around 35 percent Serb (Orthodox) and around 15 percent Croat (Catholic). The rest are small minority groups.

War Crimes Prosecution

War crimes prosecution is always a challenging task, no matter the context (and, of ...