Bosnia: No Mandate for Foreign Prosecution
Sarajevo | 05 June 2009 |
The Bosnian Council of Ministers has rejected a proposal to extend the mandates of foreign judges and prosecutors in the War Crimes Department of the State Court and Prosecution.
A source from the Council of Ministers confirmed the decision for Balkan Insight and the BIRN-Justice Report.
"There was no majority to adopt the proposition that the mandate of international judges and prosecutors be extended. Only two minsters voted in favour of the proposition while the rest were against," a source in the Council of Ministers office revealed after the regular session held in Sarajevo on June 4.
BIRN-Justice Report and Balkan Insight have learned that under the proposal international judges and prosecutors were to be retained only at the Court and Prosecution's Chamber for War Crimes, and the mandate was to have been extended for two years.
Ministers from Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, allegedly did not vote in favour of the proposition, while Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) representatives opposed the proposal that they be retained only in the War Crimes Chamber.
Under the existing exit strategy, the mandate for international judges and prosecutors is to end in December 2009.
Currently, international legal experts are engaged in the War Crimes Chamber, the State Prosecution Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crimes and Corruption, and in running the courts that handle these cases.
State Court president Meddzida Kreso, Chief Prosecutor Milorad Barasin and the ambassadors and representatives of donor countries cooperating with these institutions have called for the mandates to be extended.
"The transition process of the Office of the Registry does not exclude the possibility or imperil in any way the idea of mandate extension to a certain number of international judges and prosecutors because of their extraordinary contribution to case work," Kreso said in a Draft Strategy for Processing War Crimes issued last year.
The State Court and Prosecution at the end of 2007 supported the initiative for the extension of the mandate to a certain number of international judges and prosecutors after the transition period. Under this initiative, it was proposed that international judges should be kept in the Appeal Chamber of the Chamber for War Crimes after 2009 and that international prosecutors should remain with the State Prosecution after 2009.
Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik has frequently called for the mandates of international judges and prosecutors not to be extended.
"That will not happen with our agreement for sure. I think it is obvious that the Court and Prosecution are political institutions and not judicial ones, and that a kind of political connotation has been given out by judges and prosecutors," Dodik has argued.
International judges and prosecutors have been working in the state judicial system since the beginning of the work of these institutions in 2003.
The State Court and Prosecution were established by a Decision of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their work is heavily supported by the international community.
"There was no majority to adopt the proposition that the mandate of international judges and prosecutors be extended. Only two minsters voted in favour of the proposition while the rest were against," a source in the Council of Ministers office revealed after the regular session held in Sarajevo on June 4.
BIRN-Justice Report and Balkan Insight have learned that under the proposal international judges and prosecutors were to be retained only at the Court and Prosecution's Chamber for War Crimes, and the mandate was to have been extended for two years.
Ministers from Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, allegedly did not vote in favour of the proposition, while Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) representatives opposed the proposal that they be retained only in the War Crimes Chamber.
Under the existing exit strategy, the mandate for international judges and prosecutors is to end in December 2009.
Currently, international legal experts are engaged in the War Crimes Chamber, the State Prosecution Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crimes and Corruption, and in running the courts that handle these cases.
State Court president Meddzida Kreso, Chief Prosecutor Milorad Barasin and the ambassadors and representatives of donor countries cooperating with these institutions have called for the mandates to be extended.
"The transition process of the Office of the Registry does not exclude the possibility or imperil in any way the idea of mandate extension to a certain number of international judges and prosecutors because of their extraordinary contribution to case work," Kreso said in a Draft Strategy for Processing War Crimes issued last year.
The State Court and Prosecution at the end of 2007 supported the initiative for the extension of the mandate to a certain number of international judges and prosecutors after the transition period. Under this initiative, it was proposed that international judges should be kept in the Appeal Chamber of the Chamber for War Crimes after 2009 and that international prosecutors should remain with the State Prosecution after 2009.
Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik has frequently called for the mandates of international judges and prosecutors not to be extended.
"That will not happen with our agreement for sure. I think it is obvious that the Court and Prosecution are political institutions and not judicial ones, and that a kind of political connotation has been given out by judges and prosecutors," Dodik has argued.
International judges and prosecutors have been working in the state judicial system since the beginning of the work of these institutions in 2003.
The State Court and Prosecution were established by a Decision of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their work is heavily supported by the international community.
