Victims protest at the Court of BiH

Around thirty women and ten men protested today in front of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina voicing their dissatisfaction with the work of the institution.

Bakira Hasecic, president of the Women Victims of War, and other members of the association, later met court president Meddzida Kreso and chief prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic.

Justice Report was present at the meeting.

Hasecic said there were many reasons for victims’ dissatisfaction. “The court applies double standards towards us and the defendants,” she said. “All of their wishes can be fulfilled, while we don’t get anything.”

The majority of the association’s complaints concerned the ongoing trial of the former Visegrad policeman Boban Simsic and a judgement in the case of Nedjo Samardzic, a Bosnian Serb sentenced to 13 years for war crimes, including rape, committed in Foca.

At the meeting with Kreso and Jurcevic, Hasecic said that it was wrong that the trial chamber in Simsic case allowed the defence counsel to visit two Hague tribunal indictees, Sredoje and Milan Lukic, in the Scheveningen detention unit in an attempt to get them to appear as defence witnesses. At the same time, Hasecic said, the rights of victims and witnesses are not respected.

The victims also said they were shocked when they saw that a local Visegrad man, Miloje Joksimovic, appeared in court as a defence witness for Simsic.

They claimed that Joksimovic himself was responsible for war crimes and that the Hague tribunal possessed incriminating evidence against him. Joksimovic has denied these allegations in court. “Why was he not arrested when he was in the court?” Hasecic asked the chief prosecutor. Prosecutor Jurcevic responded that he was not aware of details of this case but promised he would do his best to provide representatives of the association with an answer.

Representatives of the victims also told the court president and the chief prosecutor that not all the rights of the witnesses were respected in the trial of Samardzic and that some witnesses found themselves in an uncomfortable situation.

They also said that the sentence of 12 years was too low compared to the crimes he was found guilty of. The victims group added they were unhappy that Milan Vujin, Samardzic’s defence counsel, who, as Justice Report revealed in the previous issue, was found guilty of contempt of court by the Hague tribunal, was allowed to practice in the Court of BiH.

Court president Kreso said she could not comment on the decisions of the war crimes chamber, but pointed out that the prosecution has the right to appeal the judgment if it was unhappy with it. Hasecic also said that the witness protection system currently in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an inadequate support for the victims.

“I understand your dissatisfaction which comes from deep pain,” Kreso said. But she added that the requests the victims put to the court seemed “a bit unrealistic”.

“The court is going through some very difficult moments,” she said. “We are under pressure from the defendants, the victims, and court-appointed attorneys who require payment for their service in advance. We are under pressure from certain political structures within the international community. We are the subject of both well-intentioned and ill-intentioned pressure. But for as long as I am the head of this institution, I will not allow any type of pressure to bear fruit. The law must be respected.”

Representatives of the victims also told the court they would like to see only local judges in the courtroom instead of the current mixed-panels. Kreso and Jurcevic agreed but reminded those gathered that this would happen at the end of the transitional stage in which the court finds itself at the moment. Chief prosecutor Jurcevic also asked the victims for some understanding.

“The prosecution is working with limited capacity,” Jurcevic said. “We have eight local and four international prosecutors. They are working as much as they can.

“Next week I will write to the high judicial and prosecutorial council and request the appointment of more local prosecutors.” Jurcevic, however, reminded those gathered that since the start of its work, the prosecution has filed 11 indictments for war crimes. He said he was not satisfied with the work of lower instance courts which are also tasked with trying war crimes cases.

“This is a problem of the state of BiH and the state should know of this problem and give its opinion on the problem,” Jurcevic said. He added that the protection system in place does not offer sufficient safety to witnesses or persons working in the justice system.

“However, if we don’t work together and present evidence, the criminals will walk freely – help us,” the chief prosecutor concluded.