ON MOUNT OLYMPUS. How the UN violated human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and why nothing has been done to correct it
ON MOUNT OLYMPUS. How the UN violated human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and why nothing has been done to correct it

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Public Administration, Security and defense
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: UNMIBH; UN in Bosnia-Hercegovina; vetting procedure; Bosnian police; High Representative;
Summary/Abstract: Between 1996 and 2002, UNMIBH ran a large police mission in Bosnia, the International Police Task Force (IPTF). One of the tasks it set itself was to rid the Bosnian police forces of inappropriate personnel through an exhaustive vetting procedure. Altogether, the UN assessed some 18,000 police officers and declared 793 unfit to exercise police powers. || These individuals were banned from serving as police for life – a very severe sanction. Yet the UN failed to offer the most basic procedural safeguards, which the UN Secretary-General himself has noted is the difference between legitimate vetting and “wholesale purges”. The banned police officers were given no opportunity to respond to the evidence against them. Some were not even told the reason for their disqualification. Among the 793, there are at least 150 cases that IPTF could not finalise during its mandate, and whose fate was simply left hanging. Some of these cases clearly involve serious injustice. || At the centre of this report is an exchange of letters between the High Representative in Bosnia and the UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations in New York. It shows that international officials have been aware for many years that mistakes were made. According to notes prepared by the High Representative’s Office (OHR), the two organisations concluded in December 2003 that there were “cases where errors of law or errors of fact might have occurred.” An OHR summary of a further meeting in July 2004 noted again that “the UN representatives acknowledged that some cases were problematic.” But nothing was done to resolve the problems. The only action on which the two institutions could agree was intimidating the Bosnian courts and authorities into doing nothing.

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