Bosnia’s Updated War Crimes Strategy Languishes in Limbo

Bosnia and Herzegovina's revised Strategy for War Crimes Processing, which was approved in February last year by the country's judicial overseer, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, has not even made it onto the agenda of the Council of Ministers, the executive branch of the state government, BIRN has learned.

The strategy, which envisages the completion of all war crimes cases by 2023, was included, at the justice ministry's request, on the agenda for a Council of Ministers session on July 3, 2018, but was then removed on the request of the minister for human rights and refugees, Semiha Borovac.

Justice Minister Josip Grubesa said he has never received an explanation why his colleague Borovac removed the revised strategy from the agenda.

Grubesa added that the Council of Ministers is unlikely to discuss the strategy until its new members are chosen. A new Council of Ministers should have been decided after elections last October, but has been delayed by political wrangling in the country.

"It is unlikely that the revised strategy will be put on our agenda now, although I have urged that this item be discussed on several occasions in the past period. Its adoption and possible revision of its deadlines due to the delay in its adoption will be the task of the new Council of Ministers," Grubesa explained.

Borovac's office told BIRN meanwhile that she will not address the subject and the question should be raised with the justice ministry.

Legal experts believe that the failure to adopt the revised strategy may lead to a slowdown in processing war crimes, as well as creation of inter-ethnic tensions. Representatives of war victims believe meanwhile that the judiciary should stick to the original strategy which has been in...