WAR CRIMINALS IN BOSNIA’S REPUBLIKA SRPSKA. Who are the People in your Neighbourhood? (ICG Balkans Report N° 103)
WAR CRIMINALS IN BOSNIA’S REPUBLIKA SRPSKA. Who are the People in your Neighbourhood? (ICG Balkans Report N° 103)

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Law and Transitional Justice, Peace and Conflict Studies, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: ICG International Crisis Group
Keywords: war criminals; war crimes;
Summary/Abstract: This report names individuals in eighteen Republika Srpska municipalities and the Brcko District who are alleged to have committed indictable acts or supervised those who did so, and are therefore potentially indictable for war crimes under the criteria established by the ICTY. Yet they continue to play a prominent role in their respective areas, and present significant barriers to the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords. Senior international officials know about them. Many meet frequently with international officials and representatives of SFOR. The influence of potential war criminals at the municipal and entity level is an open secret among international officials. The issue is often avoided, since it exposes contradictions between the international community’s commitment to justice and the rule of law, on the one hand, and the temptations of political expediency, on the other. And yet the persistence of radical politics in eastern RS follows logically from the fact that the international community permitted the SDS of indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic to participate in post-Dayton “democratic” elections. As one mayor in RS noted, “the SDS as a party protects war criminals because to do otherwise would call its entire concept into question.”1 More significantly, the failure to arrest Karadzic himself has sent a message to his wartime colleagues and political successors that they can obstruct return, actively work against Dayton implementation, exploit nationalist sentiments, and remain untouchable.

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