Dodik Threat To Arrest Bosnian War Criminals Condemned

Legal experts have dismissed claims by the Bosnian Serb president, that Bosnia’s mainly Serb entity will arrest war criminals on its own authority and extradite them to Serbia, if need be.

Members of Bosnia’s state government and the international community have also criticised Milorad Dodik, describing his threat as illegal and unconstitutional.

They say neither the Bosnian Serb president nor police can arrest, try and extradite war crime suspects, because the prosecution of war criminals is in the jurisdiction of Bosnia’s state juridical institutions.

Bosnia’s justice ministry notes also that Bosnia’s constitution forbids extradition of Bosnian nationals to another country.

The sharp reactions follow Dodik’s controversial statement earlier this month, in which he said that he would urge the Republika Srpska police to arrest Ejup Ganic and Jovan Divjak if they entered the entity and then hand them over to Serbia for trial.

Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office accuses Ganic, a former member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Divjak, a retired Bosnian army general, of playing a lead role in the May 1992 attack on a Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, convoy in Sarajevo’s Dobrovoljacka Street. The attack caused a number of fatalities among the mainly Serb soldiers.  

Last March, British police detained Ganic in London on the request of Serbia’s war crimes prosecutors. A British court later rejected a request for his extradition to Serbia, however.

Divjak was arrested in Austria on March 3, 2011, again on an arrest warrant issued in Serbia. He is currently awaiting a decision of the court in Vienna concerning his extradition request to Serbia.

Dodik said that the failure of Bosnia’s courts to arrest either man showed that Bosnia’s state prosecutor’s office and state court were “politically motivated institutions”. In future, the Republika Srpska would take no notice of them.

Ganic, meanwhile, has said that he will ignore warnings that he could face arrest if he enters the Republika Srpska.

The arrest of Bosnian citizens on the territory of just one entity was “an absurd concept”, he told BIRN-Justice Report. It would amount to kidnapping, which would represent “a complete dissolution of the rule of law”, he added.

“My journeys are dictated by my work calendar and commitments, he continued, “not by the demagogic and discursive statements of some politicians”.

“The Republika Srpska is an integral part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the laws of the state apply in that entity,” he concluded.

Kasim Trnka, a legal expert in Sarajevo, echoed Ganic’s assessment, saying that by law, the president of an entity had no authority to order police actions against war criminals.

This could only be done by the competent state juridical authorities, he added. Entities also did not have the authority to extradite nationals to other countries, he added.

“It is out of the question for the Republika Srpska to carry out extraditions to a third country because this issue of extradition lies in the jurisdiction of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Trnka maintained.

Nikola Sladoje, Bosnia’s deputy justice minister, confirmed this interpretation to Justice Report, saying that, “no one but the state minister [of justice] can interfere in the process of extradition”.

Representatives of the international community in Bosnia have also criticised Dodik’s threat, saying the rule of law had to be respected in all parts of Bosnia and all politicians had to obey the constitution.

“War crimes fall into the criminal jurisdiction of agencies at state level,” Mario Brkic, spokesman for the Office of the High Representative, OHR, said. “Entity judicial authorities can prosecute them only following an assessment by the state judiciary,” he added.
Brkic was referring to Bosnia’s National Strategy for Processing War Crimes Cases, adopted in 2008.
This obliges all district and cantonal prosecutors offices to submit war crimes cases to the State Prosecutor’s Office for assessment.
After that, Bosnia’s state court keeps control of cases deemed “very sensitive”, while the rest are transferred to the courts in the entities for further processing.
Bosnia’s State Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that is are investigating the Dobrovoljacka street case, and therefore remains only body authorized to issue orders to police regarding treatment of this case.

State Prosecutor Milorad Barasin has said that investigations into the Dobrovoljacka case will be completed in the next six months.

Legal experts in the Republika Srpska agree that Dodik’s recent claims are mainly designed for rhetorical effect.

However, they say the Bosnian Serb president is voicing widespread dissatisfaction felt among Serbs in Serbia and Bosnia concerning treatment of war crimes committed against – rather than by – Serbs.
Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, notes that Bosnia’s state prosecutor has yet to raise a single indictment about the “Dobrovoljacka case”.

Miroslav Mikes, a legal expert from Banja Luka, says Dodik’s statements are “rhetorical”, reflecting wishes that “in reality can not happen”.

But Mikes said the Republika Srpska leader was justifiably disappointed over what he clearly sees as different treatment of Serb and non-Serb war criminals.

“The crucial issue here is the total inertia of the State Prosecutor’s Office during the last year, which has been conducting an investigation into Dobrovoljacka street for years,” Mikes said.

Had Bosnia’s own state prosecutor’s office been more effective, there would be no need for prosecutor’s offices in other countries to start conducting parallel investigations and issuing warrants, Mikes said.