Chief Hague Tribunal Prosecutor Serge Brammertz says that prosecutors offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not sufficiently committed to solving numerous war-crimes investigations.
The District Court in Trebinje has not dealt with any new war-crimes cases during the past two years, because no indictments have been filed by the Prosecution in that period.
The European Unit has allocated 15.8 million euros for hiring judges, prosecutors and additional staff members in order to speed up the work on war-crimes cases. This was confirmed by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, HJPC, of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The OSCE Mission organised a meeting between representatives of civil societies and associations of war crimes victims and representatives of judicial authorities of the Central Bosnia and Zenica-Doboj Canton in Vitez with the aim of faster and more efficient processing of war-crimes cases.
The OSCE and Bosnias top judicial authority have launched a joint project aimed at speeding up work on war crimes cases by supporting support legal institutions.
Three years since Bosnia adopted a war-crimes strategy, hopes grow that the prosecution of war crimes perpetrators may finally speed up, although no increase in indictments has yet occurred.
Republika Srpska Prime Minister Aleksandar Dzombic said that he was not satisfied with the slow speed at which war crimes against Serbs were processed.
Two years after it has been commissioned, Bosnia has a draft of the Transitional Justice Strategy, but despite widespread acceptance of its importance there are already doubts whether the document will be adopted.
Although the deadlines laid out in the Strategy for the Processing of War Crimes Cases are fast approaching and international observers have expressed concern, the Supervisory Board for the implementation of the strategy is optimistic that the goals will be met.
While pointing out that the Strategy for processing war crimes cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not going as planned, Milorad Novkovic, President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), believes that with greater involvement of the courts and prosecutions in the country it is still possible to meet the deadlines required by the Strategy.