Serbia Still Making Slow Progress on War Crimes: Report

A new report by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, published on Wednesday, said there has been no progress this year so far in the implementation of Serbia's national strategy for the prosecution of war crimes.

The report, which covers the period from the start of December 2018 to the beginning of July this year, said there has not been an increased number of indictments compared to the number of investigations, that court cases continue to drag on for too long and that fewer missing persons have been found.

It also highlighted the lack of progress in Serbia to improve attitudes towards the issue of war crimes trials.

It noted the participation of released war criminal Vladimir Lazarevic in a ceremony marking the anniversary of Victory Day in May, and the Serbian Defence Ministry's involvement in publishing and promoting books written by another war criminal, Nebojsa Pavkovic.

Both Lazarevic and Pavkovic were convicted of responsibility for war crimes in Kosovo, and Pavkovic is still in jail.

The chief prosecutor at the UN court in The Hague, Serge Brammertz, criticised Serbia at the UN Security Council last week for glorifying people convicted of war crimes.

Serbian justice minister Nela Kuburovic responded by saying that people who have already served their sentence should be of no interest to the Hague prosecution.

But Humanitarian Law Centre director Ivana Zanic said because someone has served their sentence, "that that still does not mean that he has any moral authority in this society to transfer his knowledge to future generations, as was the case with Vladimir Lazarevic, who taught at the [Serbian national] Military Academy".

The new report's author, Visnja Sijacic, said that Serbia's war crimes...