Due to allegations that the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milanko Kajganić, prevented the delivery of the indictment for war crimes in Sanski Most and Manjaca and obstructions in the prosecution of war crimes in this area, a protest rally has been announced for tomorrow. The camp inmates’ union and ten victims’ associations are demanding Kajganić’s dismissal. The Chief Prosecutor’s Office rejects these claims and announces a new meeting on February 10.
According to the victims’ association, Chief State Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić exerted pressure, failed to act in accordance with the law, and even directly intervened by deleting and blocking cases. These are the reasons why victims’ associations and unions are demanding his dismissal.
“We have a Prosecutor’s Office that is probably asleep, where there are manipulations by the chief prosecutor and other employees. I think this meeting concerns all of us, the citizens of Sanski Most,” says the president of the Sanski Most Detention Center Association, Sadmir Alibegović.
Earlier, the Union of Prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted a request for the dismissal of Milanko Kajganić from the post of chief prosecutor, stating that it is necessary to appoint a person resistant to political pressure for this position. And the president of the HJPC of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sanin Bogunić, said at a meeting with representatives of the victims’ association that the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor, immediately after receiving the complaint, formed a case in order to investigate the allegations.
“After everything that has happened recently, we expect the dismissal of the chief prosecutor Kajganić. I think his time is up,” says Murat Tahirović, president of the Association of Genocide Victims and Witnesses.
“The prosecutor not only does not do his job, but he is the one who does not allow the prosecution to do its job. So, they have no cooperation, the court with the prosecution, the prosecution with the court, etc. Everyone works in their own way,” says the president of the “Mothers of Srebrenica” Association, Munira Subašić.
Inadequate cooperation between judicial institutions and bad relations between officials within the institutions undermine citizens’ trust in the judiciary, says Denis Džidić from the Balkan Research Network.
“This leads to politicization and wrong elections and, quite simply, poor management and leadership by the HJPC, but of course also by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Džidić believes.
When we asked how the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina views the accusations directed at the first man of this institution, we received a denial of the allegations of obstruction by the state prosecutor Kajganić, with a note that a special meeting will be held with the representatives of the victims on February 10.
“It is absolutely false that the chief prosecutor forbade anyone to do anything, and especially forbade the filing of an indictment, because both the chief prosecutor and the management of the Special Department for War Crimes encourage and support the prosecutors to achieve the best possible results, in accordance with professional norms and standards. In order to provide objective and accurate information to representatives of the population of victims from the Sanski Most area, a meeting has been scheduled for February 10 at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Special Department for War Crimes will meet representatives of the victims with all the essential details related to the mentioned case,” reads the reply of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
And while the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejects the accusations and announces a meeting with the representatives of the victims, the associations say that they will not give up their request for the dismissal of the chief prosecutor. They say that justice for the victims of war crimes cannot wait any longer, and the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings and discussions at the Prosecutor’s Office will be a test of the public’s trust in the work of judicial institutions, BHRT writes.
