All countries in the region formally prosecute war crimes, but proceedings are slow, selective, and often fail to reach those who gave the orders. Political pressures, trials in absentia, and a lack of regional cooperation make justice limited and insufficient for victims.
In Montenegro, proceedings rarely reach command responsibility. In Croatia, victims of the case in which Montenegrin citizens were taken to the “Lora” camp have been waiting for indictments for seventeen years. Serbia remains trapped in an institutional stalemate, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the biggest challenge is not the lack of verdicts, but their implementation in society, which makes it difficult to achieve real justice.
This stems from the answers of "Vijesti" interlocutors who have been researching war crimes across the region for years.
These insights are confirmed by last year's Progress Report, which is the main prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Serge Brammertz submitted to the Security Council. Brammertz states that national judiciaries are making some progress in establishing accountability, but it remains uneven, and thousands of unresolved cases are still awaiting prosecution.
"Most importantly, much remains to be done to bring high- and mid-level suspects to justice," Brammertz points out.
Montenegro still without command responsibility
Although there has been some progress in Montenegro in prosecuting war crimes, which was also recognized by the European Commission in its latest progress report, investigations still do not touch on individuals who had command responsibility.
"Investigations still do not reach high-ranking commanders and political leaders, who are among the main perpetrators of war crimes," said the legal advisor at Human Rights Action (HRA). Bojana Malović.
She emphasized that in the last year and a half, the only visible progress has been in the area of trials. She cited the first-instance verdict as the most significant example. Slobodan Peković, a former member of the Army of Republika Srpska, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of two civilians in the village of Hum near Foča and the rape of a woman in that town.
"The first-instance verdict against Slobodan Peković... represents an important step and can be an encouragement for other victims, especially victims of sexual violence in BiH," said Malović.
He reminds that the indictment against the police officer from Nikšić Zoran Gašović, suspected of participating in the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from Hadžići and the deportation of around 200 civilians, was only confirmed after 15 months.
Investigation against former JNA officer Milivoj Katnić, the former chief special prosecutor, has been going on for almost as long, although it relates to suspicions that he inhumanly treated civilians in nearby Cavtat during the siege of Dubrovnik in 1991.
"No new investigations that could lead to new charges have been initiated, which shows that the system continues to function slowly and inefficiently," Malović said.
He also emphasizes that none of the existing procedures meet the criteria of command responsibility:
“The verdict against Peković, the indictment against Gašović, and the investigation against Katnić relate exclusively to individual perpetrators. What is really expected of Montenegro is the prosecution of those in the highest positions who planned, approved, or facilitated the crimes.”
She cites the lack of capacity in the prosecution as a key obstacle, stating that only two special prosecutors deal with all war crimes cases, while simultaneously having responsibilities in complex cases of organized crime and corruption.
Malović emphasized that the lack of adequate protection and psychological assistance for witnesses, poor digitalization and inadequate preservation of evidence - make the work even more difficult.
In her opinion, political pressures and public attacks on judges and prosecutors seriously threaten the independence of the judiciary and may discourage witnesses from participating in trials.
Malović recognizes some progress in collecting evidence, cooperation with the Residual Mechanism and BiH authorities, as well as in reopening cases such as Deportation, Bukovica, Kaluđerski Laz and Morinj.
Malović, however, believes that the European Commission, in its latest progress report, did not critically examine the fulfillment of the obligations of the final benchmarks from Chapter 23. She emphasized that investigations against command and political structures are still lacking, access to justice and reparations is selective, and memorial reparations are completely absent.
"Montenegro still does not have a day of remembrance for the victims, nor monuments that would permanently mark their suffering, and the issue of missing persons continues to pose a serious challenge. The political will to deal with the past is not at the level that would be expected from a country that is about to join the EU," Malović assessed.
Opening of deportation case sparks hope
The descendants of the victims also expect justice from the reopening of old cases, including the case of the deportation of refugees from BiH.
"The reopening of the case has raised hope that perhaps what I have felt from the beginning, that people like my father were victims of injustice and betrayal, a betrayal of humanity, could finally be acknowledged," she told Vijesti. Narcisa Bosno Duranovic.
Her father, Esad Bosnia, was among the civilians illegally detained by Montenegrin police in May 1992 in an operation that saw at least 66 people who had fled Bosnia and Herzegovina arrested between 25 and 27 May. The civilians, mostly Bosniaks, were taken from the police station in Herceg Novi and deported by bus to territory controlled by the Bosnian Serb army. The first group ended up in a camp in Foča, while the second was taken to an unknown location. Most of the deportees were killed, and only a few of their remains were found. The remains of Narcisa's father were found after the war in an unidentified grave in Belgrade.
"When I heard that the case had been reopened, I felt a mixture of sadness, hope and fear. For too long we have lived with the feeling that the truth has been forgotten, that the value of innocent people was so low in the eyes of those who have power today," said Bosno Duranović.
He points out that, after so many years, achieving justice would mean acknowledging the suffering that has been silenced for too long.
"Innocent lives cannot be returned, but dignity, both to the victims and their families - is a debt that Montenegro has not yet paid. For me, justice would be confirmation that crime cannot be erased by silence, that the truth still has power and that a modern, healthy society cannot move forward until it faces the sin of its past," said Bosno Duranović.
She said that she would like the world to know about her father and other victims of deportation that they were ordinary people, fathers, sons, and brothers, who were only seeking safety and the right to survive.
"My father was not a soldier, nor did he pose a threat to anyone. He fled the war not only to save himself, but to avoid causing pain to others. He was a refugee, a man who believed he would find protection in Montenegro, and instead he was handed over to death. I would like the world to know that silence and indifference can be just as deadly as weapons, and that no victim should be forgotten," said Bosno Duranović.
BiH: More than a thousand convicted, verdicts on the margins of society
Expert in criminal law and transitional justice Goran Šimić points out that Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far convicted more than 1.200 people for war crimes, of which around 1.000 before domestic courts, which represents an unparalleled step forward in the region of the former Yugoslavia.
"It certainly could have been better, but it could have been worse in a country where no one is in favor of war crimes trials, nor does anyone want to invest in or support such activity, fearing for themselves and those they represent socially," said Šimić.
According to him, almost the entire territory of BiH is covered by war crimes verdicts, and the courts have established the facts about practically all significant events that can be qualified as war crimes. He pointed out that these verdicts, however, remain on the margins of society, because the state does not work on presenting them to the public, and citizens prefer to trust politicians and the media rather than read the verdicts themselves.
"Actually, the biggest challenge is not the lack of judgments, but their implementation in society," emphasizes Šimić.
He says that society, the state, and the citizens of BiH should finally decide what to do with these verdicts:
"I think that BiH prosecutors have more than enough resources to work on war crimes cases and bring them to a conclusion in the next few years. What is our problem and the next task that is a burden for this society is the question of what to do with these verdicts."
Šimić points out that everyone in BiH is aware that crimes have been committed and that war crimes trials have been going on for thirty years, but that no one wants to seriously consider what it is all about.
"The point is that practically all sides in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina committed war crimes and that the picture is not exactly black and white, as all those who participated in that war want to show," says Šimić.
Šimić states that in BiH there is no political leadership or social will to deal with the past.
On the contrary, all socio-political leaders, as he said, use the past to strengthen their own position and manipulate ethnic groups:
"Therefore, it is clear that they did not want, nor did they like, to get to grips with and pass laws or strategies that would be implemented in BiH. In essence, I would not say that they want the people of BiH to reconcile. On the contrary, they work every day to ensure that the conflict potential in the country remains as strong as possible," said Šimić.
As an example of a long-standing blockage, Šimić cites the Law on the Rights of Camp Inmates and Detainees, which has been pending for 30 years.
"It is clear that passing the law is not a matter of securing funds in the budget, several million or tens of millions of marks to compensate these persons. Passing such a law, or determining the status of camp inmates, would confirm that these camps existed. No one in BiH wants that at the moment, and it is not surprising that such laws are not being passed," said Šimić.
He said that Bosnian society remains trapped in the crimes and events of 1992-1995. He stated that the state of BiH has never taken concrete measures to establish the true facts about what really happened and place them in the appropriate socio-political context.
"This would greatly reduce the space for manipulation, which is a favorite area of activity for socio-political activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is not happening, and it certainly will not happen in Bosnia and Herzegovina anytime soon," said Šimić.
Serbia: Political challenges hamper the work of institutions
Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) from Serbia Jasmina Lazović She assessed that after the first ten years of work of specialized institutions for processing war crimes, which were accompanied by optimism, there has been a constant regression since 2014.
"Accompanied by the political relativization of responsibility for crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, as well as the unwillingness and weakness of institutions in taking steps that would lead to more efficient prosecution of war crimes," explained Lazović.
It is particularly worrying, he adds, that the trials are taking place far from the public, the institutions are closed, and the media is uninterested in this topic:
“War crimes trials are taking place almost exclusively due to the formal obligation to meet EU integration requirements in the area of the rule of law.”
The Humanitarian Law Center, as she pointed out, has been warning for years about problems of a procedural nature, such as lengthy trials, non-appearance of defendants, changes in members of the trial panel, a small number of hearings held, unprofessional work with witnesses and experts, poor-quality indictments and inappropriate sentences.
"However, the work of institutions is particularly negatively affected by challenges of a political nature. The actions of the institutions do not show a clear intention to contribute to the fight against impunity through trials. The trials are taking place in a context in which they serve to strengthen the ethno-nationalist culture of memory, with an almost exclusive focus on Serbian victims, while there is no place for remembering the 'other'," said Lazović.
She pointed out that a large number of indictments have been filed in the last year and a half, but that they relate to Kosovo Albanians and Croatian citizens who are not available to judicial authorities in Serbia.
“Due to the lack of cooperation with judicial authorities in the region, the problem of trials in absentia currently seems intractable.”
Lazović also warned about the lack of transparency of institutions, stating that even if the public were interested in what was happening in the courtroom, they would encounter excessive anonymization of indictments:
"Anonymization makes it impossible to analyze and understand the process, and therefore to inform the population of Serbia about the crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, primarily by the Serbian army, police and paramilitary formations."
She emphasized that the Public Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes has been operating without a chief prosecutor for months, while some "regime spokespeople" have recently been publicly testing the idea of completely abolishing specialized war crimes institutions.
"As time passes, perpetrators, witnesses, and victims die. This fact should be key to the proactive work of institutions," said Lazović.
She added that, given the regional nature of the conflict, perpetrators, witnesses and victims today live throughout the Balkans, and that excellent regional cooperation is the only way to ensure efficient prosecution at the national level.
"Given that no country in the region wants to extradite war crimes suspects, regional cooperation in the investigation phase and during court proceedings is the only way to achieve justice for the victims," concluded Lazović.
Croatia: Trials in absentia and weak regional cooperation
Executive Director of Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past from Croatia, Vesna Teršelic She said that war crimes trials are continuing, without much public attention, even though a large number of cases are still in the pre-investigation phase.
"Among the cases in which an indictment has not yet been filed are the suffering of captured military reservists from Montenegro, who were captured on the Herzegovina battlefield in 1992 and taken to the 'Lora' military investigation center in Split. A decision on conducting an investigation has not yet been made, although pre-investigation activities have been underway since 2007," Teršelič stated.
During 2024, Documenta recorded a total of 54 criminal proceedings in the hearing phase, which are under the jurisdiction of the county courts in Zagreb, Rijeka and Osijek.
"As in previous years, the trend of trials in absentia in war crimes cases remains dominant, despite all the arguments we persistently present against such trials," Teršelič pointed out.
She added that during 2024, no proceedings were recorded against members of the Croatian Army or the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia.
“Only three criminal proceedings were conducted against members of the HVO for war crimes committed on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Criminal proceedings were conducted against 187 defendants, of whom three defendants were members of the HVO, and the remaining 184 were members of Serbian paramilitary and parapolice forces.”
She pointed out that after Croatia's accession to the EU, there was stagnation in the quality of criminal prosecution and trials.
"The competent county state attorneys' offices lack the capacity to review and investigate unresolved war crimes cases, and the effectiveness of investigations has decreased, especially against members of Croatian military units," Teršelič emphasized.
She particularly highlighted the problem of insufficient regional judicial cooperation:
“There has been some progress in cooperation between Croatia and BiH, where proceedings are being conducted before Croatian courts against defendants residing in Croatia for crimes committed on the territory of BiH.”
She pointed out that during 2024, the County State Attorney's Office in Split filed two indictments against HVO members residing in Croatia, for war crimes committed on the territory of BiH.
"There is no cooperation between Serbia and Croatia in this regard. Some progress has been made in cooperation between Croatia and Montenegro. It is worrying that proceedings have been ongoing in Serbia for almost five months against Krunoslav Fehir", who is still in custody, even though this is a case that has already been adjudicated in Croatia," said Teršelič.
Fehir is accused in Serbia of war crimes against Serbian civilians on the orders of a former Croatian army general. Branimir Glavas 1991 in Osijek.
Teršelič stressed that it is necessary to improve regional cooperation, enable trials of defendants in their countries of current residence, and consider establishing joint investigation teams in cases that require coordinated work or investigation in multiple countries.
"It is necessary to deprive judicial officials of political influence and enable the harmonization of standards of conduct between judicial bodies of countries in the region, so that as many perpetrators and command-responsible individuals as possible are brought to justice, but also to end the persecution of persons for whom there is no evidence that they are perpetrators or to overturn the verdicts against those unjustly convicted."
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