This post is also available in: Bosnian
Dalida Burzic, who began work as the chief of the cantonal prosecution in Sarajevo this month, told BIRN on Thursday that one of her first moves was to resume investigating the case of Turajlic, who was killed in January 1993.
Turajlic died in a suburb of Sarajevo while travelling from the city airport in an UN peacekeepers’ vehicle which was stopped at a roadblock by Bosnian Serb troops, one of whom opened fire.
Bosnian Serb soldier Goran Vasic was indicted for the murder in 1998, but he was acquitted in 2002, after which the investigation was closed.
“The case in which Vasic was acquitted finished a long time ago. However, I believe that if someone is acquitted due to the lack of evidence, that does not mean that work on the case is complete,” said Burzic.
“I pulled out this case and managed to reactivate it. This case is being treated as a war crimes case, as a case against an unknown perpetrator,” said Burzic, adding that the file will be sent to the Bosnian State prosecution soon.
Burzic also told BIRN that she was aware of the “negative image” of the Sarajevo Canton prosecution, which has drawn criticism after prosecuting only three war crimes cases in the past year and which has more than 150,000 other pending unresolved cases.
She said she intended to “earn the trust of the public” by prioritising war crimes cases and complex organised crime investigations.
“I plan to inform the newly-elected government about the problem this prosecution has with lack of personnel, so that they can financially assist us, as 44 prosecutors cannot secure legal protection for around one million inhabitants who live in Sarajevo Canton,” said Burzic.
She explained that there are currently only three prosecutors working on war crimes, but that this number is adequate because “most cases are currently under review at the Bosnian state prosecution”.
According to the Bosnian war crimes strategy, the state court and prosecution review all investigations before sending the less complex ones to the entity level, while the most complex are prosecuted on the state level.
“I will to increase the overall number of prosecutors in order to be able to come out with better results of our work. It is important to me to secure better working conditions which are not at all good now,” Burzic said.
Burzic, who worked as a judge in war crimes cases before taking over her new job, said that the public should understand that prosecutors are often underpaid and overworked.
“Cantonal prosecutors have the lowest wages and they are the ones who represent indictments beforethe courts, where judges have higher salaries. With such salaries, the prosecutor is asked to be on duty, conduct investigations, prepare indictments and prove them. The judges make decisions, while prosecutors do everything else. The salaries of the prosecutors are not adequate in relation to their role,” she said.
