Interview Archives

Prosecutions of the most significant war crimes, corruption and organised crime cases slowed last year, but the head of Bosnia’s High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council insists that the focus in 2018 will be on dealing with high-level suspects.

Reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia will be hard to achieve while war criminals are still treated as heroes, the chief prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal, Serge Brammertz, told BIRN ahead of its closure this month.

Author Julian Borger argues that because Serbia was not penalised for shielding Ratko Mladic while he was on the run, it helped foster a culture of denial of war crimes and genocide.

After his arrest, Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic told his lawyers not to waste time defending him, but instead to defend the “Serb army and people”, defence team member Miodrag Stojanovic told BIRN.

The Bosnian state court deserves praise for completing hundreds of war crimes cases, but it still has a “long road ahead” to clear its huge backlog, its president Ranko Debevec told BIRN.

Hatred, nationalism and loyalty to Ratko Mladic made Bosnian Serb Army colonel Ljubisa Beara a key organiser of the Srebrenica massacres, says journalist Ivica Djikic, the author of a novel about the recently-deceased convict.

Prosecutors in the former Yugoslavia must develop comprehensive policies for dealing with sexual and gender-based crimes to ensure justice for vicims, Hague Tribunal deputy prosecutor Michelle Jarvis told BIRN.

The prosecution’s failure to make complex war-crime cases a priority has wasted the resources of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the president of its criminal department, Minka Kreho, says.

The Bosnian authorities need to explain what they want from their partnership with NATO, particularly on security issues and fighting violent extremism, the political adviser at the US Mission to NATO told BIRN.

In his first interview since being appointed chief prosecutor of the new Kosovo special court, David Schwendiman told BIRN that suspected criminals are his target, not the Kosovo Liberation Army itself.

Interview

Bosnia’s Judicial Overseer Vows to Speed Up Prosecutions

Hague Prosecutor: Balkan States Still Celebrating Criminals

By Hiding Mladic, Serbia ‘Fostered Culture of Denial’

Mladic Wanted to Use Trial to ‘Defend the Serbs’

Bosnian State Court President Condemns ‘Unfair Criticism’

Bosnian Serb Colonel Beara ‘Chose Evil’, Says Author

Wartime Sexual Crimes: A Challenge for Balkan Prosecutors

Bosnia’s Top Court Has ‘Wasted’ Resources, Kreho Says

Bosnia Must Say What it Wants from NATO

Schwendiman: New Kosovo War Court ‘Not Anti-Albanian’

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