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d. Applying lessons learned from ICTY missteps At times, staff who brought prior ICTY experience to Bosnia have helped improve upon the state court’s approach by applying to their work in Bosnia lessons learned the hard way in The Hague. The experience of Lucia Dighiero exemplifies the point. In December 2004, Dighiero, who had worked in the ICTY’s Victims and Witnesses Section (VWS) since 2002, became the first director of the Witness and Victim Support Section (WSS) of the Court of BiH. As an ICTY victim support officer observed, Dighiero was able to “take the bits that were helpful” from her experience in the ICTY’s VWS and “transfer[] her … skills to the locally recruited staff,” while adapting expertise developed in The Hague to a different context. 865 Dighiero recalled that, as the unit in Sarajevo was being established, “they had a concept but no practical experience” in working with vulnerable witnesses. 866 Dighiero was able to bring to bear a broad range of practical experience in setting up the new office, which she applied in hiring and training staff and, 867 most important, in establishing protocols for assisting witnesses. In Dighiero’s view, the ICTY’s “main influence” on the office she helped launch, “was the idea of this VWS.” 868 While the VWS provided an important model and a key source of expertise, the ICTY’s approach also provided a cautionary tale. For Dighiero, it was all important that the fledgling BWCC avoid “this bureaucracy with the ICTY,” where staff in the VWS could not directly address judges about witnesses’ psychological state but instead had to communicate through the UN hierarchical structure of intermediate officials. “At the ICTY,” she recalled, “it was very formal.” At the BWCC, she could communicate directly with judges about witnesses’ practical needs in the courtroom—things as mundane as a witness’s need to take a 15-minute break—and “they listen to us … they accept that we’re part of the process.” 869 Dighiero also made sure that her office could establish contact with witnesses earlier than was possible in the ICTY. The VWS generally did not get involved with witnesses until they received a summons. “Often,” Dighiero recalled, “issues were coming up that could have been solved” if the section had been able to establish contact sooner. 870 At the Court of BiH, her office is able to establish contact sooner: in the case of prosecution witnesses, typically two to three months before they testify. 871 4. Completing the “completion strategy” Like many victims of wartime atrocities, Josip Drežnjak and Drago Zadro had hoped to find justice in The Hague—but now realize that the only justice they may find will come from domestic courts. And like many victims, the men have found that justice in Bosnia might be found, if at all, in courts that were not addressed in the ICTY’s completion strategy. Both men lost several relatives in a notorious 1993 massacre in Grabovica in which 33 Croat civilians were slaughtered by Bosniak soldiers. The victims included Drežnjak’s mother, father, and sister-in-law; Zadro lost his mother, father, brother, sister-in-law, and a four-year-old niece, and has raised the slain toddler’s two brothers, who managed to escape the slaughter. 126 IMPACT ON DOMESTIC WAR CRIMES PROSECUTIONS
The ICTY prosecuted just one person for the Gravobica massacre, charging a senior Bosniak military official, Sefer Halilović, with command responsibility for the Grabovica massacre and for the murder of 25 inhabitants of the nearby village of Uzdol in September 1993. On November 16, 2005, an ICTY Trial Chamber acquitted Halilović. Although it confirmed the fundamental facts of the Grabovica massacre, the chamber found that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant actually commanded the operation that claimed so many civilian lives. 872 Survivors of the massacre were devastated. When Halilović went to The Hague, Drežnjak recalled, “we expected that he would be sentenced, that the verdict would be reached, that justice would be met.” 873 Intimately familiar with the facts of the massacre, Zadro was “one hundred percent sure that he would be convicted. … I counted on it one hundred percent.” 874 But they “lost almost every hope” after Halilović was acquitted, Drežnjak told us. Now, Halilović serves in the national parliament, and victims who believe he was responsible for their relative’s deaths “see this guy on TV, in the media, every day.” While Halilović’s acquittal frustrated their hope of finding redress in The Hague, Drežnjak and Zadro continue to believe, fourteen years after the Grabovica massacre, that justice is necessary. “After all that one has been through,” Drežnjak explained, “it’s very often the case that you cannot even sleep well. But then you have to find someone to tell about it all. … We just want to see justice.” 875 Zadro says he has found “at least something, some small comfort,” 876 in convictions imposed by Bosnian courts, but their limitations are also painful. In October 2003 (before the BWCC became operational), Enes Šakrak, a soldier who pleaded guilty to killing Zadro’s mother and four-year-old niece because “his conscience could not stand it any longer,” 877 became the first person sentenced for the Grabovica massacre; Šakrak was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. 878 Soon after, the cantonal court imposed a nine-year sentence on Mustafa Hota, who pleaded guilty to killing a 79-year-old man and his wife during the same military operation. 879 According to Drežnjak and Zadro, three other soldiers implicated by Šakrak were convicted in Bosnian courts of participating in the murder of Zadro’s relatives but “they haven’t served their sentences yet” because “there’s no room in prison” for them. 880 Recounting this, Drežnjak asked, “Can you imagine how we feel? They wait for us to go crazy.” 881 Like anyone who has endured tragic loss, each of these men’s suffering is unique. But the challenges they describe are systemic, affecting victims across Bosnia who are still seeking justice for wartime atrocities. Just as the ICTY could prosecute a small fraction of wartime atrocities, the Court of BiH can handle a fraction of the war crimes cases that now fall to Bosnian courts to complete. Yet only the state court has been adequately prepared to meet this challenge, creating what many perceive as “double standards for justice” in Bosnia. 882 Civil society activist Dobrila Govedarica believes that the ICTY’s role in the creation of the BWCC is one of its most important achievements but notes that it is “limited to the state court. We now have the problem of how to apply it to lower courts.” 883 THAT SOMEONE GUILTY BE PUNISHED 127
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That Someone Guilty Be Punished The
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That Someone Guilty Be Punished The
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Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7
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Acknowledgments Diane Orentlicher,
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Methodology This report draws upon
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I. Introduction On May 25, 1993, th
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Victims’ Justice The Security Cou
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in the . Srebrenica genocide. Many
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Journalist Nidžara Ahmetašević r
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survive “ethnic cleansing.” Muh
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ings [of Bosnia’s judiciary were]
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from territories under Serb control
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C. Peace and Justice If the ICTY fa
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groups are approximately the same s
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F. Cooperation by Bosnian Authoriti
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Women [who were captured by Serb so
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Tribunal’s expressive function in
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We found this view to be nearly uni
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Branko Todorović, who heads the He
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full establishment of healthy and c
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Sali-Teržić believes that justice
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committed war crimes, a notion that
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J. “Justice Isn’t Just in Legal
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Vehid Šehić, who believes the ICT
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Because our own research did not in
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imposed on two other perpetrators c
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feared it would be reduced to half
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Enumerating victims’ frustrations
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While some of our Bosnian interlocu
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2. Biljana Plavšić On October 2,
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Others interviewed during the same
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executions, the execution in Korić
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D. Significant Verdicts, Other Ruli
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at least 2012; another, Ratko Mladi
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could be legally attributed to Serb
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Hasečić leads, the Association of
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ings … went before any expectatio
Page 78 and 79: enica survivor Kada Hotić describe
Page 80 and 81: they are in the shadow of Karadži
Page 82 and 83: First, individuals who had been for
Page 84 and 85: Kovačević, who was under indictme
Page 86 and 87: says it was “not the major reason
Page 88 and 89: their names are not publicly disclo
Page 91 and 92: V. Truth and Acknowledgment The off
Page 93 and 94: A. Acknowledging and Condemning Atr
Page 95 and 96: We encountered another brand of non
Page 97 and 98: Herzegovina that only serves to cau
Page 99 and 100: 3. Acknowledgement on the part of o
Page 101 and 102: More generally, Bosnians’ percept
Page 103 and 104: is standard procedure for prosecuto
Page 105 and 106: crimes occurred and meet with local
Page 107 and 108: Srd¯an Dizdarević believes that t
Page 109 and 110: VI. Impact on Domestic War Crimes P
Page 111 and 112: But if his words seemed to invite s
Page 113 and 114: Rules of the Road In the aftermath
Page 115 and 116: Responding to a question about the
Page 117 and 118: In examining the results and prospe
Page 119 and 120: the ICTY’s strategy for completin
Page 121 and 122: a. Rule 11 bis cases While Rule 11
Page 123 and 124: ut the documentation is still in th
Page 125 and 126: December 2006, Vaso Marinković, th
Page 127: tional judges and prosecutors are n
Page 131 and 132: In recent years, state authorities
Page 133 and 134: in the late 1990s, as it finally be
Page 135: oning with the dark pages of its re
Page 138 and 139: 9. Interview with Fadil Budnjo, pre
Page 140 and 141: 38. As we note in Chapter VI, then
Page 142 and 143: 58. Richard J. Goldstone, For Human
Page 144 and 145: 84. In 1997, the Peace Implementati
Page 146 and 147: the Security Council, S/2005/781, D
Page 148 and 149: 135. Interview with Mirsad Duratovi
Page 150 and 151: 160. The ICTY prosecutor issued the
Page 152 and 153: 2009; Patrice C. McMahon and Jon We
Page 154 and 155: 221. An example of such an individu
Page 156 and 157: izručenje” (“Most RS Citizens
Page 158 and 159: 267. In November 2001, Dragan Kolun
Page 160 and 161: Families of Missing, Forcibly Detai
Page 162 and 163: vict’s sentence, including “the
Page 164 and 165: 348. See Marlise Simons, “Crossin
Page 166 and 167: 379. See Judith Armatta, “Srebren
Page 168 and 169: 2001 and was based on U.S. federal
Page 170 and 171: 426. Interview with Kada Hotić, vi
Page 172 and 173: 467. The average length of trials c
Page 174 and 175: 495. Gideon Boas and Timothy L.H. M
Page 176 and 177: estored to them. The early return o
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561. Murselović recalled that at t
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other charges. See Marlise Simons,
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of the Convention on the Prevention
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admit to the existence of war crimi
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681. “Controversial group in Sreb
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and disruption of war and immediate
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Herzegovina, 46 Colum J. Transnat
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729. International Crisis Group, Wa
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Change, Analysts Say,” New York T
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tation of the Peace Agreement to th
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Republika Srpska (31.9%). See South
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798. E-mail communication with Pipi
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822. As of July 2009, all but one o
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as “horrible,” while noting tha
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Jails Overflow,” BIRN’s Justice
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sarily devoted mainly to prosecutin
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Open Society Justice Initiative The
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When the United Nations Security Co
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