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The political climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina is impeding the process of achieving justice, chief Hague Tribunal prosecutor Serge Brammertz told a conference on the legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in Sarajevo on Thursday.
“The glorification of criminals and denial of crimes are striking,” Brammertz said.
The Tribunal’s influence in the region has decreased due to political irresponsibility, revisionism and the denial of crimes, participants at the conference were told.
The Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite state presidency, Dragan Covic, said the Tribunal, which will close down at the end of the year, had done a good job.
But in a sign of the continuing post-war ethnic divisions within Bosnian politics, he said the presidency could not praise the Hague court unanimously because all its three members – one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb – did not agree.
“I wish I could present a joint stance from all the members of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that is not the case. Twenty-two years after the end of the horrible war on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, each of us has an individual stance and this issue is an example of that,” Covic said.
He also pointed out that many war crimes remain unprosecuted in the country even now, and that serious criminals have gone unpunished.
“There are a huge number of uninvestigated war crimes,” Covic said.
“You have said that the people most responsible have already been dealt with by the Tribunal, but we do not believe it,” he added.
Covic also said that efforts should be made to depoliticise war crimes and work towards reconciliation.
Brammertz meanwhile gave special thanks to the victims of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, many of whom testified at trials in The Hague.
“Victims remind us of why the Tribunal was formed in the first place and why this job is important. Many victims in the world cannot even expect justice. Crimes are committed in Syria and Congo, every day, but no initiatives for justice exist in the world today,” he said.
A video message from Benjamin Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials of senior Nazis after World War Two, was also played at the conference.
Ferencz said the Hague Tribunal was “a brave and hard experiment for the world”.
“I am glad this court was established and that justice can be satisfied. It will determine our capability to deal with problems in the future,” Ferencz said.
“The law and justice are important. We are all human beings and we have the right to justice and dignity,” he added.
The ICTY will officially close its doors at the end of this year after it has pronounced verdicts in the cases against former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic and six former Bosnia Croat officials.
The remaining cases that were before the ICTY, including the appeal in the case of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, have been taken over by the Mechanism for International Tribunals in The Hague.
