Dzerard Selman: Clashing Court Jurisdictions Harm Bosnia’s Justice

“The VSTV should do more to eliminate the uncertainties about the overlapping jurisdictions of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and regional courts in the Republika Srpska,” Selman said, referring to the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina.One possible solution, he said, would be for Bosnia’s State Court to assign more war-crime cases to the regional courts that would then complete the job.Under Bosnia’s National Strategy for Prosecuting War Crimes, adopted in December 2008, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting on the proposal of the State Prosecutor, decides whether to keep war-crime cases within its own jurisdiction or forward them to local court or prosecutors.The decision depends on the case’s “sensitivity”. Less sensitive cases are forwarded to courts in the Republika Srpska or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Sensitive cases remain in the jurisdiction of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These concern suspects who held high-ranking positions during Bosnia’s 1992-5 war, or which concern grave crimes such as murder and rape.Selman told Birn-Justice Report that the district courts in the Republika Srpska were now fully trained to handle war crimes.“The government [there] has invested more than 25 million euro in recent years in equipping the courts,” he said.“The regional courts in Banja Luka, Doboj, Trebinje, Istocno Sarajevo and Bijeljina have equipped courtrooms for war-crime trials, which include separate rooms for protected witnesses and most audio and video equipment needed for the smooth conduct of the process”, Selman added.As an example, Selman pointed to the Regional Court in Banja Luka, where he said trials were efficient and the work is deemed good. The minister added that some prosecutors and judges are now specialists in such trials.Up until May 2010, the Banja Luka Court has sentenced 24 people to a total of 245 years for war crimes.
However, staff in the Regional Court emphasize that they still need to improve conditions for the protection of witnesses and establish a special chamber for war crimes.A survey conducted in May of this year by Birn-Justice Report, in the Regional Court revealed that they do not yet have an appropriate courthouse to hold trials for war crimes and organized crime. In some cases, judges were forced to hold trials in the Basic Court building in Banja Luka, the survey showed.Similar shortcomings beset other regional courts in the Republika Srpska. They lack audio and video equipment, nor do they have the facilities to allow witnesses to testify from another room.Whatever the problems with the conduct of war-crime trials in the Republika Srpska, Selman said the entity would never agree to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina forming its own department within the regional courts, which alone would be responsible for war crimes.According to Selman, this would represent a classic conflict of jurisdiction.The minister was referring to a proposal of some representatives of the Court of the Bosnia and Herzegovina, put forward during the drafting the National Strategy for Prosecuting War Crimes, which was to set up a department for war crimes of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in all the courts in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. This idea was not accepted.Turning to the question of prisons for war criminals in the Bosnian Serb entity, in his interview with Birn-Justice Report, Selman spoke about the Department of Corrections in Foca, eastern Bosnia.A special unit with capacity of 58 single and double cells has been built there, though it remains empty.
Selman said technical acceptance of the object was completed ten days ago. “It is already called the Scheveningen of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said, referring to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, jail in the Netherlands.No one was yet installed there, but “the majority of those convicted of war crimes will be accommodated there