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The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that they would not sign a Protocol on Co-operation of War Crimes Cases with the Republic of Serbia’s Office of the War Crimes Prosecution, because the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina warned them that they are the only body which is competent to conclude international treaties.
The Protocol on Co-operation in the Prosecution of Perpetrators of War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide, that was due to be signed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia’s Office of the War Crimes Prosecution in Brussels on November 30, this year, will thus not be signed.
It is alleged in the statement of the State Prosecution that on November 28, 2011, that they received a letter from Zeljko Komsic, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by which the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is warned that “only the Presidency is competent to conclude international treaties on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
According to the statement, The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is instructed to put the Protocol on Co-operation in the procedure.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers that in this case it is not the matter of an international treaty, but of the Protocol on Co-operation between two Prosecutor’s Offices, which more closely defines one aspect of providing international legal assistance in cases of war crimes, whose relation is regulated by already signed international treaties”, it is said in the statement of the State Prosecution.
As it is stated in the statement, the Commission of The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which worked on the harmonisation on Protocol on Co-operation, decided not to accede to its signing, after it was informed about the position of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted the Protocol to the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Justice on several occasions, and accepted and included certain remarks of the Ministry of Justice in the Protocol, but the stance of that Ministry was that the Protocol is not subject to ratification”, it is said in the statement.
Damir Becirovic, Advisor for Media and Youth Affairs in the Office of Zeljko Komsic, could not talk about the statement of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but said that “everything which is signed between two states is an international treaty”.
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