Serbia-Bosnia War Crimes Protocol Generates Indictments

The Bosnian state prosecutor’s office said at a meeting of the Bosnian and Serbian chief prosecutors in Sarajevo on Friday that as a result of the protocol, it would soon issue an indictment for crimes against Serbs near Sarajevo, as well as for another alleged war crime against people have relatives in Serbia.

“There was substantial cooperation with the prosecutor’s office in Belgrade in these cases. However, in order to protect the interests of the investigation in ongoing cases, the prosecution cannot provide the public with more details about these cases,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The meeting of the Bosnian and Serbian chief prosecutors, Goran Salihovic and Vladimir Vukcevic, was also attended by representatives of Serbian police involved in the investigation of war crimes.

They also discussed the activities of the Bosnian and Serbian prosecution’s joint team that works on finding the perpetrators of war crimes in Strpci in 1993, and issues related to finding war crimes witnesses of who are located in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

“One of the issues discussed at the meeting referred to cases of war crimes in Srebrenica and other sites, in which the Serbian prosecutor’s office provides significant help and assistance to the prosecutor’s office of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of suspects and accused persons located in Serbia,” said the Bosnian prosecution.

Prosecutors from Serbia said that they will need cooperation in cases regarding the killings of civilians in Strpci and Sjeverin in order to prosecute the perpetrators.

The prosecutor’s offices of both countries signed the protocol on cooperation in finding the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in February 2013, but no indictments have yet been issued as a result.