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

December 2006, Vaso Marinković, then head of the SDWC, was unable even to estimate how
many cases fell into this category, noting that new cases “are coming in on a daily basis.” 835
Like the case files returned by the OTP in late 2004, these cases might be prosecuted before
the Court of BiH or before a court in one of the entities or in Brčko. 836 How to decide whether
cases should be prosecuted before the BWCC or instead referred for trial elsewhere has presented
vexing challenges, which we address later.
3. Transfer of expertise and jurisprudence
a. Coordination, collaboration, and training
Alongside its transfer of case files, the ICTY has provided ongoing support in the form of
expert guidance to prosecutors, judges, and defense counsel in Bosnia. To facilitate collaboration
between ICTY and local prosecutors, the OTP established a Transition Team within the
office, whose function is to coordinate with local prosecutors in the former Yugoslavia on both
11 bis and Category II transfers. 837 According to officials in the SDWC, lawyers in their office
“work really closely” and “constantly” with prosecutors at the ICTY. “When we get a case” from
the ICTY, one said, “we send our people up there. It’s a terrific relationship.” 838
In addition, judges from the BWCC have traveled to The Hague, while prosecutors
from Bosnia have participated in various symposia with their counterparts in the OTP aimed
at sharing professional experiences. 839 Moreover, ICTY judges and prosecutors, as well as
defense counsel who have practiced before the Tribunal, have given lectures as part of Bosnian
programs aimed at training local defense counsel. 840
While the ICTY’s contributions in bolstering domestic capacity have been “immensely
important” 841 to the BWCC and related offices, they should not be overstated. As two former
ICTY prosecutors acknowledge, “[m]uch less has been done” by the ICTY “in terms of
transferring … know-how, that is assistance on how to prosecute and adjudicate war crimes
cases,” than in transferring evidence. Emir Suljagić, a former journalist who covered the ICTY,
goes further. In his view, “There was no strategy behind the completion strategy” in terms of
“transferring know-how, unless you call seminars transferring know-how.” 842 In an interview
in late 2006, the liaison officer of the ICTY acknowledged these limitations, noting that the
participation of ICTY personnel in training seminars and the like is not part of a “structured
… program,” in part because the Tribunal did not have funding to provide training on a programmatic
basis. 843
Several recent initiatives that form part of the Tribunal’s high-profile strategy to demonstrate
its “legacy” commitment may partially address Suljagić’s concerns. In July 2009,
prosecutors from Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia began a six-month internship at the ICTY to
work in an intensive way with the OTP. During this period, according to the ICTY’s Web site,
the Balkan prosecutors would “have an opportunity to learn about methodologies of search-
THAT SOMEONE GUILTY BE PUNISHED 123