Ten accused of genocide and war crimes in and around Srebrenica, including several former high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), are not available to the Bosnian judiciary.
According to the information of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, these are Tomislav Kovač, Milomir Savčić, Milenko Živanović, Svetozar Kosorić, Radoslav Janković, Milisav Gavrić, Zoran Malinić, Miomir Jasikovac, Borislav Stojišić and Rajko Drakulic, against whom the indictments have been confirmed.
“Currently, in the Special Department for War Crimes, there are ten indictments confirmed, in which the defendants are located mainly on the territory of Serbia, and this is a big problem in the fight against impunity for crimes, because some of those defendants held important positions in 1995, so the BiH Prosecutor’s Office the help of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (MRMKS) is trying to find a modality for their prosecution and punishment,” is stated from the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.
At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office reminds that indictments for genocide and war crimes in and around Srebrenica, in July 1995, as part of the Special Department for War Crimes, have been brought against about 50 defendants since the beginning of its work until now.
Furthermore, they state that on the basis of the indictments of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, final prison sentences of several hundred years were imposed, and that some of the longest prison sentences, with more than 30 years of imprisonment per accused, were imposed against members of the 10th sabotage squad of the VRS in the Franc Kos case and others.
Otherwise, the Special Department for War Crimes handles cases against a large number of reported and suspected persons who are unavailable to the BiH judiciary (361 persons unavailable in 123 cases), among whom there are also persons reported and suspected of crimes in and around Srebrenica.
“The biggest problem is that most of these people are in the countries of the region and most of them have dual citizenships, so it is impossible to expect their extradition. Therefore, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH is trying to find a modality within the framework of regional cooperation to fight against impunity and prosecute persons who in the region”, state the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.
Furthermore, they explain that, due to the unavailability of the accused, the cases against a certain smaller number of defendants were handed over to the Serbian judiciary for processing, such as the case related to the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative, the locality where, according to the facts established by the court, mass murders were committed in July 1995.
The BiH Prosecutor’s Office said that there is a certain number of cases that are in the investigation phase, in relation to the events in and around Srebrenica, in the summer of 1995, against dozens of people, but they could not talk about it in detail at this stage.
