30% of Bosnian War Crime Suspects ‘Unavailable to Prosecutors’

The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina heard at its session on Wednesday that 30 per cent of war crimes suspects cannot be reached by prosecutors as they are living outside the country or have absconded.

It was recommended at the HJPC session that a top-level regional conference be organised to address the issue.

There are still thousands of unresolved cases from the Bosnian war.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's Council of Ministers was criticised in July for again failing to adopt a revised national strategy for prosecuting war crimes to ensure that huge backlog of cases is processed by 2023.

The HJPC session also discussed a report from the OSCE mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina which criticised the country's judicial authorities for the decline in war crimes convictions since 2016.

However, HJPC member Goran Nezirovic said the council should not comment on the issue.