NEWS ARCHIVE

Impunity Watch launches new report in Belgrade

17/12/2008 - On December 16, 2008 Impunity Watch (IW) held the Belgrade launch of its new research report, ‘Dealing with Impunity in Serbia - Options and Obstacles’, providing a systematic overview of the major obstacles for achieving accountability for crimes committed during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, and recommendations for confronting them. The report was produced with partners the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM), the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), the Humanitarian law Centre (HLC) and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (HCS).

The event was opened by Serbia’s state secretary for human rights, Marko Karadzic, who emphasised that, in order to combat impunity, Serbia has to guarantee the rights to justice, truth and reparations, and non-recurrence of the crimes of the past. If it is to succeed, he said, it is of crucial importance for state institutions to cooperate with civil society. He also acknowledged that many strategies employed as part of Serbia’s official transitional justice policy to date, such as the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2001, were obvious attempts to extend state control, with the body in question having been a political tool rather than one dedicated to guaranteeing the right to truth for all concerned.

Head of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Department of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ruth Van Rijhn, discussed how certain aspects of the struggle against impunity in Serbia, such as truth and reparations, tend to be put off in favour of judicial responses. She saw the importance of the IW report, therefore, in its presentation of the need to develop those other mechanisms, and highlighted factors crucial to that process. In particular, the need to raise awareness among young people could not be overstated, she said.

Executive director of YUCOM, Milan Antonijevic, provided a general overview of the main findings and recommendations of the IW report, as well as a more detailed presentation of issues related to the right to justice and key problems in the area of war crimes prosecution.

Sandra Orlovic, deputy director of the HLC, then discussed the right to reparations, highlighting the lack of initiatives in this area in Serbia. She explained that victims can only obtain reparations by bringing court cases, which, in turn, is only possible thanks to the support of non-governmental organisations. She also stressed the lack of awareness in Serbian courts and other institutions that certain groups of citizens constitute victims, pointing out that Bosniaks victimised by Serbian police and army forces since the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia [Muslims from Southwest Serbia] are not recognised as such since victims are defined only as those to have suffered as a result of the ‘acts of enemies’.

Orlovic presented IW’s recommendations for combatting these and other related problems, such as certain statutes of limitation, mentioning various models and mechanisms for fulfilling victims’ rights to reparations.

Marijana Toma of IW presented the report’s key findings and analyses of previous and existing efforts in the area of the right to truth. She explained that the RECOM, an initiative of over a hundred non-governmental organisations from the former Yugoslavia to establish a truth commission, is a suitable tool not only for the combat of impunity and fulfillment of victims’ right to truth, but also for breaking down the culture of denial common to almost all post-conflict societies.

Marlies Stappers, executive director of IW, provided an overview of the organisation’s mission and activities, and described some similarities and differences between Serbia and Guatemala, the other country in which IW is currently running a programme. Describing the ‘mirror image’ of Guatemala’s substantial of truth and reparations initiatives, but almost complete lack of criminal justice, she explained how IW’s partners from there and Serbia had benefited from the opportunity to share their experiences when researching and developing policy proposals to combat impunity. This international exchange is a key part of IW’s ongoing work.
Impunity Watch’s key recommendations for combating impunity in Serbia are:

Global: It is essential the state take a clear position on the crimes committed in the past and enable the establishment of lasting peace and the democratic rule of law in Serbia and in the region by making systematic efforts to achieve accountability for those crimes.
Justice: It is necessary to establish full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and arrest and extradite its remaining indictees. In addition, it is important to increase the independence of national judicial institutions and create conditions for the increased safety of victims, witnesses, court representatives, human rights organisations and other persons involved in processing war crimes, the location and disclosure of evidence and the consistent implementation of international documents in relation to those defending human rights.
Truth: There is a need to take all necessary steps towards the establishment of the RECOM as an unique regional platform for the establishment of truth. Furthermore, it is necessary to enable full accessibility of documents and archives, the opening of dossiers and the exposure of the contents of the controversial minutes of Supreme Defence Council meetings, and thus reinstate the confidence of all citizens in institutions, prevent the further destruction and forging of archives, and ensure their processing, classification and protection. 
Reparations: It is necessary to adopt a legal framework that will secure the provision of reparations to victims of serious crimes under international law, as well asto establish memorials, remembrance days, and other types of non-material reparations to victims of crimes committed during the 1990s.
Non recurrence: It is crucial to urge awareness-raising among youth about the serious crimes under international law committed in the recent past, the clarity of their attitudes towards them, and the development of a system of values based on the universal honoring of the democratic rule of law and human rights. In this regard, the educational system must be reformed and independent mechanisms for the protection of human and minority rights strengthened.

The summary and recommendations of ‘Dealing with Impunity in Serbia - Options and Obstacles’ are currently available to download in Serbian, and shall shortly be available in English. The full report and its complete research source data will be available in early 2009.