http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/tolprint.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrI ssue=1&NrSection=2&NrArticle=10967&ST1=body&ST_T1=brr&ST_AS1=1&ST_max=1 Cosmetic Court? ________________________________
13 November 2003 Serbia unveils its new war crimes courthouse, but analysts say justice may only be getting a new face, not a new soul. by Andrej Nosov <http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/tolprint.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&Nr Issue=1&NrSection=2&NrArticle=10967&ST1=body&ST_T1=brr&ST_AS1=1&ST_max=1 #author> BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro--With all the fanfare and grandeur of a historical event, authorities in Belgrade on 24 October cut the ribbon on a new, state-of-the-art courthouse to try war crimes and organized crimes cases. But local analysts say it's a cosmetic change--that doesn' t necessarily mean Serbia is ready to deal with the war crimes of its former leaders. Some human-rights advocates believe that local authorities lack the political will to try former leaders for chain-of-command responsibility, despite significant gestures of cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The interior of the courthouse is indeed impressive. Each judge has a courtroom monitor and bulletproof glass and iron bars separate the accused from the judges and the audience. There is a press room for journalists, as well as a separate room for witnesses. The courthouse's detention center can hold up to 60 people. At the opening ceremony, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic promised that justice would be served in the new courthouse. "War crimes have names and victims . and war criminals have to be punished, no matter what their motivations: whether for personal reasons, criminal reasons, or nationalist ideology. There is no national idea that can justify war crimes," Zivkovic said. Analysts, however, say such words are likely meant to appease international authorities and buy more time to negotiate with justice. Since 1996, Serbian authorities have tried only five war crimes cases. Even some Serbian war veterans say the government is not seeking justice for the victims of war crimes. "The authorities are doing nothing to see that justice is served. They are toying with those who lost their family members, with war invalids, they are negotiating with justice," said one veteran from the Kosovo war, who asked that his name not be used. "We went to war by order and decree of the state, and there is no negotiating that," he said, adding that he is speaking in the name of many of his veteran friends who have now begun to talk about what happened in Kosovo and what they fought for. According to some Belgrade analysts quoted in Serbian media, it would have been impossible to prosecute war crimes under the old law, but it will still be impossible under the new law created last summer, if politicians lack the political will to do so. Serbian Parliament adopted a new law on war crimes on 1 July. The new law provided for the creation of a special state prosecutor's office to investigate war crimes committed during the 1990s. The criminal code provides for sentences of up to 40 years for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But while all that looks good on paper, analysts are skeptical that the Serbian judiciary is up to the task. NEW COURT, OLD ATTITUDE? The first sign that a new attitude toward cooperation with the ICTY was perhaps not etched in stone came in October, after the international court published an indictment, against four high-ranking military and police generals. Belgrade's relations with The Hague instantly turned sour. The indictment against Public Security Chief Sreten Lukic, former Yugoslav Army (VJ) Chief of Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, former VJ General Vladimir Lazarevic, and Lukic's predecessor, General Vlastimir Djordjevic, for war crimes, including "expulsion, inhuman acts, and murder," sparked strong reactions in Belgrade. A week after the publication of the indictment, police organized a 4,000-strong protest in Belgrade. Many politicians who had earlier spoken out for cooperation with The Hague changed their minds. Cooperation it seemed, was conditional. By 7 November, authorities in Belgrade had still failed to arrive at a decision regarding the extradition of the four indictees to The Hague. Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, the chairman of the National Council for Cooperation with ICTY, said that consultations would resume with the international community. Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic was less cryptic on 7 November when he categorically refused to demand Lukic's resignation as chief of public security. "I won't seek Lukic's resignation, nor will I ask him to surrender to The Hague," a rathr defiant Mihajlovic told local media. As far as the Human Rights Watch in Belgrade is concerned, though, " there is no dilemma." The generals must be extradited to The Hague Tribunal, just like every other indicted person," Human Rights Watch's Bogdan Ivanisevic told TOL. The biggest problem, Ivanisevic says, is that authorities are using war crimes trials as a way to make sure that lower-profile scapegoats take the fall for the atrocities committed in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. "The tendency for war crimes trials to be used to cover up the responsibility of police and army forces and to place responsibility on certain individuals instead is very troubling," he said. As an example, Ivanisevic points to the Ovcara case, in which authorities indicted only low-ranking soldiers--and not those with chain-of-command responsibility--for the murder of Croatian civilians in 1991, near the city of Vukovar. Another recent trial was that had the skeptics on full alert was the 29 September sentencing of four former Serb paramilitaries to 15 to 20 years in prison for the torture and murder of 16 Muslim civilians from Sjeverin in October 1992. The court's ruling was applauded as the first conviction of Serb paramilitaries since a special war crimes prosecutor was appointed in July. Critics, however, echoed the warnings of Human Rights Watch, citing the fact that no former high-ranking Serbian official have been held responsible. Old attitudes also prevail when it comes to admitting responsibility for war crimes committed in Bosnia. Serbian authorities have refused to hand over to ICTY any war-crimes-related documentation dated before 1995. Bosnia has sued the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ) before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for genocide and aggression. The release of pre-1995 information could seriously damage their defense, says Ivanisevic. Dealing with war crimes committed in Kosovo is also a burden for the Serbian government. Only five kilometers outside of Belgrade is a mass grave containing the bodies of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Interior Minister Mihajlovic has said that trucks had transported 86 bodies to the mass grave. The investigation into that has made little (if any) progress, though Serbian authorities have assured the ICTY that the opposite is true. Serbian authorities discovered the mass grave two years ago. When a journalist from Television B92 recently asked Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic whether any indictments for war crimes that led to the mass grave could be expected anytime soon, Vukcevic answered, predictably, " We cannot expect any indictments because the investigation must first be completed." That was 25 October, a day after the opening of the new war crimes court in Belgrade. In the meantime, some media outlets continue to publish statements denying the existence of the mass grave and developing conspiracy theories about evil forces seeking to destroy the Serbian nation's past glory and its defending heroes. In October, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report about the mass grave, recommending that Serbian authorities accept responsibility and face the consequences. The report said a "new sense of urgency" was needed. But it would seem that authorities are only superficially complying by using the media to ask people who have information about war crimes to contact them. It has also been announced that the drivers of the trucks that transported the bodies to the mass-grave site will be used as witnesses, or possibly charged as co-conspirators. CULT OF VICTIMS Analysts have told local media that the recent police protest in Belgrade provides evidence that authorities lack political will to prosecute former leaders for war crimes and that they are still dictating cooperation with The Hague. Some protesters, mostly police academy recruits, told local media they were ordered by their superiors to attend the protest. "We were ordered to put on our uniforms and come to the protest, because General Sreten Lukic had defended our country from terrorists," said one female police academy student, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is obvious that the protests were organized by the government and the Interior Ministry," said security analyst Milos Vasic, of Vreme magazine. "The only question is whether protesters were paid for their services. It seemed to me that they dragged recruits by their ears to the protest, because it is impossible to love your commander that much." "There is no public consensus in Serbia on how to deal with war crimes. Serbian society is deeply frustrated and still breeding a cult of victims. It is hard to predict the public's reaction to war crimes trial sentencing," Sonja Biserko, president of the Serbian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, told TOL. Biserko also lamented the fact that the media paid little attention to earlier war crimes cases and does not feel compelled to investigate such issues. "It is an open question whether there will be a debate about responsibility for the war, especially about the responsibility of intellectual elite," Biserko said. Belgrade media thrives largely on publishing controversial statements by unnamed analysts who say it is time to stop government officials who are trying to betray fellow Serbians to The Hague. Former ruling politicians, for their part, do not want to touch the subject. They stick to their old opinion: that Serbia needs to suspend the law on cooperation with The Hague, and stop selling out people whom they see as the heroes and defenders of the country. It is uncertain when the next war crimes trial will actually take place in the newly built courtrooms. As far as cases of organized crime are concerned, though, the new courthouse is being put to work right away. The first case to be tried in the state-of-the-art facility is for the murder of police general Bosko Buha. Members of the so-called "Maka" organized-crime group--some of whom are also former members of Serbian State Security--stand accused. ________________________________ Andrej Nosov is a Belgrade-based reporter. Related Stories: BRR News: Serbian War Crimes Law Comes into Effect <http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrI ssue=1&NrSection=1&NrArticle=10034> The Serbian Law on War Crimes Trials came into effect on 8 July, paving the way for more trials of indicted war criminals in Serbia. The law coincides with the unprecedented appearance of Albanian witnesses at a Kosovo war crimes trial in Belgrade. 14 July 2003 BRR Features: Bringing War Crimes Home <http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrI ssue=1&NrSection=4&NrArticle=10294> Serbia and Croatia strike a deal to jointly investigate war crimes. by Goran Tarlac 31 July 2003 ________________________________ We want your feedback. If you would like to discuss or comment on this, or any other TOL article, please visit our Discussion Board <http://forum.tol.cz/> ________________________________ Copyright C 2003 Transitions Online. All rights reserved. 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