REPORT: GOVERNMENT OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA FAILED TO PROVIDE JUSTICE AND REPARATIONS TO THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS

The authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina have failed to provide access to justice and reparations for thousands of victims of rape – according to a report carried out by TRIAL, the Swiss association against impunity.

"According to some sources, between 100,000 and 200,000 persons died during the conflict."

“The fact that the number of human lives lost has not been precisely determined, coupled with a feeling of apprehension among thousands of family members and communities, represents a continuation of insecurity characterised by the forcible disappearance phenomenon and prolongs the agony of family members hovering on the edge between hope and despair 18 years later,” the Report says.

Srebrenica remains thrown into garbage

The unprofessionalism of Serb authorities in exhumation and preservation of mortal remains presents challenge in identifying missing genocide victims:

"As an example it can be recalled that, in March 2010, a witness informed about the fact that mortal remains of a missing person could be located in an individual grave near Srebrenica. The remains were laying on the ground surface and they were found by Mr. Slobodan Škrba, an employee of the Republika Srpska Operative Team for Missing Persons. Mr. Škrba allegedly notified the police in Srebrenica and then, instead of waiting for the MPI and the representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office and to obtain a Court’s order of exhumation, he proceeded to collect the mortal remains, putting them in a plastic bag which he subsequently handed over to the mortuary at the Srebrenica Hospital. Allegedly, when cleaning the Hospital premises, the maintenance lady unintentionally took the plastic bag with the remains and threw it into the trash. This unprofessional behaviour resulted in the permanent loss of mortal remains of a person, which will never be identified, thus depriving forever his or her relatives of their right to know the truth and to mourn and bury his mortal remains."

TRIAL submitted the report - prepared in collaboration with 11 victims’ associations - to the United Nations' Committee against Torture.
TRIAL Report on Bosnia-Herzegovina Submitted to the Committee Against Torture of the United Nations

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