Bosnia and Herzegovina people

The question of rehabilitation and reintegration of war criminals has not attracted much attention either in the countries of the former Yugoslavia or internationally. This is somewhat odd considering that 59 of 91 individuals sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY have already been released from prison after serving sentences for grave crimes.

The Bosnian state prosecution filed an indictment this week charging ten people with committing a war crime in Sarajevo on May 3, 1992, when a Yugoslav People's Army military convoy was withdrawing from the capital.

The retrial of Sakib Mahmuljin began on Tuesday at the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court after the first-instance verdict sentencing the former commander of the Bosnian Army's Third Corps to ten years in prison was quashed.

The defence lawyer for Dragomir Vasic urged the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Monday to clear his client of assisting in the forcible resettlement of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995 as well as the capture and execution of men and boys in Bratunac, Srebrenica and Zvornik.

The prosecution urged the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Tuesday to increase the sentence handed down to Sakib Mahmuljin from ten to 20 years for failing to prevent murders and inhumane acts by members of the Bosnian Army's El Mujahideen unit in the Vozuca and Zavidovici areas during the war.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Veljovic (1954) with committing the war crime of rape and sexual abuse as a member of the Army of Republika Srpska in 1992 in the area of Foca, the judicial institution announced.

Davor Dragicevic's lawyer, Dragan Tolimir, confirmed to BIRN that he had received the Banja Luka prosecution's decision to discontinue the investigation against him on September 8.

Dragicevic himself said the decision meant little to him, as it has come after a three-year delay. "As far as I am concerned, the decision means nothing to me," he said.

The decision by the UN court in The Hague last month to uphold the life sentence handed down to former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic takes the number of life terms imposed for involvement in the Srebrenica genocide to five.

The letter points out, as he stated, the disastrous action of ad hoc courts.

Berlin has given no indication that Schmidt's appointment signifies any meaningful increase in its commitments to Bosnia; a fact which is readily apparent given that Chancellor Angela Merkel is herself preparing to step down later this year.