Michael Johnson, registrar of the court of BiH: “The court of BiH has performed well but it still needs help”

The top western official in Bosnia’s war crimes chamber has called for an end to the court’s practice of holding closed trials.

Michael Johnson, who leaves his post of chief of the Court of BiH Registrar Office at the end of March, said such trials risk undermining justice.

“We must keep the courtrooms open at all times because they belong to the people,” he told BIRN’s Justice Report. “Trials without a public audience are not the proceedings people will believe in.”

His comments follow protests from lawyers, victims groups and NGOs after the
court decided to hear two war crimes cases behind closed doors at the Sarajevo court.

Bosnia’s war crimes chamber decided, on a prosecution request, to hold the trials of Radovan Stankovic and Nedjo Samardzic in private to protect the names of Foca rape victims.

But victims groups, who allege some of the witnesses were willing to have their names used, have objected, calling on the chamber to follow the example of the Hague war crimes court and hold only parts of such trials in closed session.

“Witnesses’ rights must be protected, but the protection must take place at trials open to the public,” said Johnson. “Trials need to be open.”

However, apart from this issue, he said the chamber, which opened in March last year, has outperformed expectations and praised the judges, lawyers and court staff.

“This is very young court but the results it has achieved are very strong,” he said. “You have some of the best judges in the world. Prosecutors too. All they need is to have trust restored in them, experience and tools to finish the job.”

The implementation of the war crimes chamber project started in mid-2004 when Johnson arrived in Sarajevo to oversee the process. The court is the first of its kind in the world, set up as a permanent institution rather than as an ad-hoc judicial body as has been the case in other war-torn countries.

While it is currently comprised of a mixture of Bosnian and foreign staff, it is envisaged that by 2009 the court will be a fully local institution.

“No other court in the world would have been able to take upon itself such commitments in such a short period of time,” said Johnson. “The crucial issue is to make sure that the trials are as sound as they are in The Hague. What has been achieved here is beyond all expectations.”

But he warned that the international community must continue to support the court, both financially and logistically, until it is ready to stand on its own feet.

His last task, before leaving, is to organise and implement a donors’ conference set up to take place on March 31 in Brussels, which is due to secure an additional 40 million euro for the court’s functioning in the next few years.

His departure marks the beginning of the strategy of closing the international-run registry of the court and incorporating it into domestic institutions but disputes within the international community representatives in Bosnia means that no firm alternative to this body has been put in place.

“Who will raise more money if it is needed? Who will call a donors’ conference and how will a budget be formed?” Johnson asked.

“This country and its citizens have had a very difficult trauma which has affected self-confidence. That has shaken the trust you had in each other, in the authorities and the institutions,” said Johnson. “You need friends and partners. That’s what the international community should be.”

He told BIRN’s Justice Report in an exclusive interview that he had asked Paddy Ashdown, the former High Representative, to endorse a plan for a supervisory board, the Board of Custodians, which would provide independent monitoring of the court once the role of the registry has been transferred into local institutions.

Johnson said the board should be made up of a mixture of local and international staff, legal professionals and government representatives, but revealed that Ashdown turned down the offer.

“I laid out the proposition to Paddy A