Bosnia Doubles Number of War Crimes Indictees

The Bosnian state prosecution said it will indict more than 100 people this year for war crimes during the early 1990s conflict – almost double the number of suspects charged in 2013.

Chief prosecutor Goran Salihovic said on Thursday that the number of indictments is expected to rise to 100 by the end of this year, as opposed to 56 in 2013, as the authorities try to deal with a backlog of more than 1,200 unfinished war crimes investigations.

The rise follows an injection of European Union funds which have enabled the hiring of new prosecutors.

At a meeting with the chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Serge Brammertz,  Salihovic also noted that the 100 indictments represented a quarter of the total of 400 over the past decade.

“It was also highlighted that more than 80 per cent of all raised indictments have resulted in convictions, which speaks about the quality of the investigations,” the Bosnian prosecution said in a statement after the meeting.

Salihovic and Brammertz also discussed investigations transferred from The Hague to Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his last visit, Brammertz criticised the Bosnian prosecution, saying that not enough progress had been made.

The prosecution said it intended to act on Brammertz’s concerns.

“These cases are especially important for the progress report delivered by the Hague prosecution to the UN Security Council, and it was concluded that activities in these cases should be done with maximum speed,” it said.