Victims’ associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina have recently expressed grave concern about the practice of allowing convicted war criminals to avoid serving prison sentences by paying fines or ‘day fines’.
Saša Magazinović, an MP of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent a proposal in the parliamentary procedure to amend the Criminal Code to regulate this issue differently.
Professor of Philosophy, the Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, David Pettigrew, told FENA that representatives of the victims’ association rightly believe that such a practice, which exempts the perpetrators from the sanctions imposed on them, represents a betrayal of justice.
“Such a practice favors the perpetrators and insults the victims. In this way, instead of condemning, crimes are minimized and relativized. Although numerous countries, such as Germany, Sweden, and Finland, have experimented with fines as an alternative to imprisonment – for lighter crimes – none of these practices apply to convicted war criminals,” he emphasized.
He says that by paying a “day fine” to avoid or reduce a prison sentence for a person convicted of a war crime, respect for the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina is undermined, and thus there is no hope for the survivors for justice or future recognition and commemoration of the crimes they were exposed to.
He adds that this cynicism regarding the rule of law is reinforced by the non-prosecution of denial of genocide and glorification of war criminals in the Republika Srpska since the president of that BiH entity, Milorad Dodik, repeatedly denied genocide with impunity.
“While the remains of the victims are still being sought, and family members are awaiting identification, it is unacceptable that convicted war criminals routinely avoid their already short prison terms through such benefits in the form of monetary compensation,” emphasized Professor Pettigrew.
For him, the unacceptable practice of allowing convicted war criminals to avoid prison sentences points to the glaring failure of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to establish a comprehensive strategy for transitional justice that would restore respect for the rule of law, prosecute denial and hate speech, ensure erecting a memorial to the victims of crimes that were judged as war crimes, and provided adequate reparations for the survivors.
Former High Representative Valentin Inzko passed a historic law on the prohibition of denial of genocide and glorification of war criminals, and now it is the task of the OHR to support the implementation of that law to give the citizens of BiH who survived genocide and other war crimes hope for justice.
