That Someone Guilty Be Punished - International Center for ...

While the ICTY and OHR were satisfied that the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber and
the Special Department for War Crimes were capable of handling cases transferred pursuant
to Rule 11 bis, the prospect of domestic prosecutions of persons indicted in The Hague
aroused concern among some victims, who still trusted the ICTY more than they trusted
Bosnian courts. 783 They were hardly reassured when the first person transferred pursuant to
11 bis, Radovan Stanković, escaped from prison in May 2007 following his conviction before
the BWCC for wartime atrocities, including multiple rapes, enslavement, and torture of civilians
in the town of Foča—which was also the site of his escape. 784 Although this was not the
fault of the BWCC, which generally received high marks for its conduct of the Stanković case,
the episode reinforced victims’ concerns about whether Bosnia was ready to take over cases
initiated in The Hague.
Since then, confidence in the BWCC has grown, though substantial challenges remain.
Just as victims cite a litany of what they consider to be failings of the ICTY, they recite a raft of
disappointments in the BWCC’s work. 785 Yet despite these, a 2008 survey of public attitudes
toward the Court of BiH and the Prosecutor’s Office (POBiH) found that “[m]ost representatives
of war victims’ associations … were generally satisfied with the work of the Court and
Office of the Prosecutor of BiH,” 786 while a majority of citizens “believe that the Court and
the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH are the most important institutions for prosecution … of war
crimes.” 787 At the same time, however, the same study highlights enduring public concerns as
well as misperceptions about the Court of BiH. 788
Reflecting on the BWCC and SDWC in July 2009, Mirsad Tokača, who directs the nongovernmental
Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo, summed up their achievements
this way: “They have produced really excellent results in a short period.” 789 While the
ICTJ, the OSCE Mission to BiH, 790 and others have identified a number of concerns relating to
the BWCC, it has generally received high marks for its overall performance and is now seen as
a model form of hybrid court. 791 And despite the fact that the ICTY acted to create the BWCC
only when pushed to do so by the imperatives of its completion strategy, many now rank its
contribution in this regard as among the Tribunal’s greatest accomplishments. 792
3. War crimes prosecutions before Bosnian courts: The ICTY’s imprint
In view of the BWCC’s emergence as a core element of the ICTY completion strategy, it is not
surprising that cases originating in The Hague formed an important part of its initial docket.
But cases before the BWCC originating in The Hague are not limited to those transferred
pursuant to Rule 11 bis. In fact, although the ICTY’s need to transfer indictments of relatively
low-level suspects provided crucial impetus to the establishment of the BWCC, only six cases
involving ten suspects have been transferred to Bosnia under the Rule 11 bis rubric. 793
118 IMPACT ON DOMESTIC WAR CRIMES PROSECUTIONS