BOSNIANS PAY TRIBUTE TO GENOCIDE VICTIMS FROM SREBRENICA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - Thousands of Bosnians paid tribute in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo yesterday to more than 300 Bosnian civilians mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica before their remains were to be buried later this week on the 13th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

“I came to pay tribute to the genocide victims since it is my duty,” said Safija Mulovic, a shopkeeper. “I am here to mourn the death of innocent people.”

In July 1995, the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered some 10,000 Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica.The massacre, Europe’s worst since World War II, has been classified as an act of genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN war crimes tribunal, both based at The Hague,The Netherlands.

The remains of 307 genocide victims, aged between 15 and 84, will be buried near Srebrenica on the 13th anniversary of the genocide tomorrow.

The convoy of trucks carrying the remains of the genocide victims briefly stopped in front of the building of the Bosnian State Presidency where the Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic and a member of the Bosnian Presidency - Zeljko Komsic - paid their respects.

People stood alongside the roads through which the convoy passed, many of them crying. They threw roses onto the trucks, while some were praying.

The genocide victims’ bodies were exhumed from mass graves after the end of the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia and have been identified by DNA analysis.

Some 3,200 genocide victims from Srebrenica have been buried so far at the Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari,near Srebrenica,built in 2003, but thousands of others are yet to be exhumed and identified. More than 60 mass graves have been uncovered in the area.

“Serbia has to extradite those charged for crimes” committed in Srebrenica, the Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic told journalists.

The masterminds of the genocide in Bosnia - Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic - are both hiding from justice somewhere in the genocidal Serbia.


Bosnians stand among coffins of 307 genocide victims from Srebrenica displayed at The Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari near Srebrenica, 120 kms northeast of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The 307 bodies were excavated from mass-graves in Eastern Bosnia and were identified as Bosnian civilians mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in the Srebrenica area in July 1995. The genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians after capturing Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia. The 307 identified genocide victims will be buried on July 11, 2008 in the Genocide Memorial Center next to some 3,200 genocide victims already buried there.


A Bosnian woman and child are seen, searching for her relative, among coffins of the genocide victims from Srebrenica, displayed at the Genocide Memorial Center of Potocari near Srebrenica, 120 kms northeast of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Thursday, July 10, 2008. The 307 bodies of the genocide victims were excavated from mass-graves in Eastern Bosnia and were identified as Bosnian civilians mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in the Srebrenica area in July 1995. The genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians after capturing Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia. The 307 identified genocide victims will be buried on July 11, 2008 in the Genocide Memorial Center next to some 3,200 genocide victims already buried there.


A Bosnian woman carries her daughter inside the Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari,near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica on July 10, 2008, a day before a funeral ceremony to commemorate the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. The genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered some 10,000 Bosnian civilians after the former United Nations "safe zone" fell into their hands in July 1995. Newly identified genocide victims are buried each year by their families after their bodies are dug out of mass graves.Some 3,200 genocide victims from Srebrenica have been buried so far at The Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari,near Srebrenica.
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DUTCH COURT RULES IT HAS NO JURISDICTION IN A LAWSUIT BY THE GENOCIDE SURVIVORS FROM SREBRENICA AGAINST THE UN

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 10,2008) - A Dutch court ruled today that it has no jurisdiction in a civil suit against the United Nations by the genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, affirming U.N. immunity from prosecution, even when genocide is involved.

An association of the genocide survivors from Srebrenica "the Mothers of Srebrenica" was seeking compensation for the failure of Dutch United Nations troops to prevent the genocide committed by the Serbian fascist aggressor in the U.N.-declared safe zone of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The Hague District Court said the U.N.'s immunity — which is written into its founding charter — means it cannot be held liable in any country's national court.

"The court's inquiry into a possible conflict between the absolute immunity valid in international law of the U.N. and other standards of international law does not lead to an exception to this immunity," the judges wrote in their ruling.

A ruling lifting the U.N.'s immunity could have had far-reaching implications for the way the world body carries out its peacekeeping operations around the world.

At a hearing last month, Dutch government lawyer Bert Jan Houtzagers said that if a Dutch court decided it had jurisdiction in the case, "any court in any country could do so and that would thwart the viability of the United Nations."

Axel Hagedorn, a lawyer for the genocide victims from Srebrenica, said he would appeal today's decision. The case could go to the European Court of Human Rights.

"The court ruled that the U.N. has immunity, even if a genocide has happened, and that is in our opinion exactly what you can't accept," Hagedorn said.

He said the court should have overruled U.N. immunity because of the extreme circumstances of the case — the first genocide in Europe since the Genocide Convention was drawn up in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

"You have to change the jurisdiction on this, because otherwise you accept genocide," he said.

The genocide victims' lawyers earlier cited a figure of US$4 billion as a starting point for compensation negotiations.

Court spokesman Diederik Thierry said no appeal would be heard until judges rule in a separate court case by the genocide victims' against the Dutch state for its troops failure to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica.


Judge Hans Hofhuis is seen in the courtroom of The Hague District Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, July 10, 2008. A Dutch court ruled it has no jurisdiction in a civil suit against the United Nations by the genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, affirming U.N. immunity from prosecution even when genocide is involved. The court said the U.N.'s immunity, which is written into its founding charter, means it cannot be held liable in any country's national court.

The genocidal Serbian aggressor had overrun the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995, which had been declared a safe haven by the United Nations two years earlier. The Dutch peacekeepers did not fire a single shot in defense, and the UN did not respond to the Dutch commander's calls for air support.

Dutch soldiers in U.N. blue helmets did absolutely nothing to protect Bosnian civilians.They just watched on as Bosnian women and young girls were taken away and raped by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor and some 10,000 Bosnian civilians being taken away for summary execution.

The genocide victims' families launched the lawsuit against the Netherlands and the UN. in July 2007, arguing the Dutch U.N. soldiers were to blame for the genocide in Sreberenica because they refused crucial air support to their own troops defending the Bosnian town.

The Dutch U.N. soldiers abandoned the enclave instead,and the genocidal Serbian aggressor mass murdered up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians who had relied on protection from the Dutch U.N. troops.

Former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on genocide charges over Srebrenica, are still hiding from justice.

The Dutch government has always said its troops were abandoned by the U.N. which gave them no air support, but public documents actually show a network of Dutch military officials within the U.N. blocked air support because they feared their soldiers could be hit by friendly fire, the genocide victims families' lawyers said.

The Dutch government resigned in April 2002 in a scandal over its role in the genocide in Bosnia.Over 3,000 genocide victims have been buried so far in the Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari near Srebrenica. Mass graves are still being excavated.

An independent report by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation in 2002 placed partial blame for the genocide in Srebrenica. It also faulted the U.N. for designating the area a "safe haven" for Bosnian war refugees, but not defining what that meant.

The U.N. tribunal set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia has ruled that the mass murder at Srebrenica constituted genocide, and has convicted several Serbian war criminals for aiding and abetting genocide. It is still seeking the two prime criminal suspects in the genocide in Srebrenica : Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic who are still hiding from justice somewhere in the genocidal Serbia.
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TRIAL OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINALS MILAN AND SREDOJE LUKIC BEGINS

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 10,2008) - Serbian war criminals Milan and Sredoje Lukic who committed numerous war crimes against Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia went on trial yesterday before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague,the Netherlands.

In one horrifying mass murder in June 1992, Serbian war criminals Milan and Sredoje Lukic barricaded nearly 70 Bosnian civilians — elderly men, women and children ranging in age from 75 years to just 2 days — into a house and set fire to it, Prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges at the ICTY.

As flames tore through the crowded rooms and the victims inside screamed in agony, Serbian war criminals Milan and Sredoje Lukic stood outside shooting anybody who tried to escape, he said.

One boy and his mother somehow managed to flee the building separately.After he fled, the boy cowered in a creek bed as the horror unfolded in front of his eyes.

"He cried as he watched the house burn. Listening to the screams of his many burning relatives, believing his mother was among them. It would not be until three years later ... that the mother and that son would learn that each had survived this holocaust," Prosecutor Groome stated.

Serbian war criminals Milan and Sredoje Lukic , showing no signs of emotion, sat in court listening to a translation of the prosecution's opening statement through headphones. They have pleaded not guilty to charges including mass murder, extermination and persecution, which carry a maximum life sentence.

Groome said Serbian war criminals Milan and Sredoje Lukic repeated the atrocity of deteining another 70 Bosnian civilians into a house and torching them less than two weeks later.

Again, one of the Bosnian civilians managed to flee, but only after making a heart-rending decision.

The woman, who will testify at the trial under the pseudonym VG114, was huddling with her sister in the house as it burned, Groome said.

"Efforts to keep the flames off her 9-year-old sister proved futile, she considered that her last act would be to climb out of the house and warn other Bosnians to flee for their lives," he told the three-judge panel.

"So in an act that still haunts her to this day — and will for the rest of her life — she loosened her sister's grip on her clothes, abandoned her to the flames and started to bang on the garage door blocking the window," Groome added.

"She did escape the fire that night but not before her flesh caught fire, her long brown hair singed from her head, now bald and burned." he said.

In another attack, Serbian war criminal Milan Lukic and other members of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor lined up seven Bosnian civilians beside the River Drina, which cuts through Visegrad, and shot them in the back with semiautomatic gunfire, Groome said. Two of the men survived by falling into the river and playing dead. They also will testify at the trial.

Serbian war criminal Milan Lukic was arrested in August 2005 in Argentina and sent for trial in The Hague.

His accomplice,Serbian war criminal Mitar Vasiljevic, was convicted by the tribunal in 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The tribunal had planned to send both Serbian war criminals to face the justice in Bosnia as a way of speeding up proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which is under pressure to finish all trials and appeals and close its doors by 2010.

However, Serbian war criminal Milan Lukic successfully appealed against having his case transferred to Bosnia and judges then decided to try both Serbian war criminals together in The Hague so witnesses would not have to testify twice.
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EUROPEAN UNION EXPECTS POLICE REFORM TO CONTINUE IN BOSNIA

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - The Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitrij Rupel said today that Bosnia must continue police reform.He told Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine that Bosnia had to effect constitutional changes in order to remove barriers to the decision-making process.

Rupel said that his country was satisfied with the results of its EU presidency, especially because Bosnia signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU.

Asked whether constitutional reform in Bosnia would be necessary for Sarajevo’s further progress towards EU membership, the minister said that constitutional reform “is not in itself a condition for EU membership,” but that the “constitution could make Bosnia’s road towards the EU harder if there was obstruction of the decision-making process or further problems linked to the functionality of the state system.”

He stated that the EU expects police reform to continue in Bosnia, adding that it was necessary to create a functional police system at state level, and compatibility in terms of organization and cooperation as elements of a single police structure, without which, he said, “there cannot be a successful fight against organized crime.”

Rupel said that he was optimistic as regards the completion of all conditions needed for the closure of the Office of the International community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR), adding that the election campaign ahead of the October local elections would be a chance for calm and argumentative campaigning to show that the country was on the road to closing down the OHR.
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BOSNIAN CANTONAL AND DISTRICT COURTS FACE OBSTACLES IN WAR CRIMES TRIALS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - "Bosnia’s cantonal and district courts face serious challenges in their efforts to fairly and efficiently try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. A sustained commitment by the Bosnian authorities, as well as substantial international support, is needed to address the large backlog of cases, Human Rights Watch said.

Local and national authorities in Bosnia should demonstrate the political will to ensure fair and effective trials can be held.

It is estimated that several thousand unresolved case files involving very serious crimes committed during the 1992-95 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia remain that may be tried before the Bosnian cantonal and district courts. Yet, these trials have a fraction of the attention or support that similar trials received at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or the War Crimes Chamber of the Bosnian State Court.

“Victims have been waiting for more than a decade to see justice done,” said Joshua Franco, researcher in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.

“Local and national authorities in Bosnia should demonstrate the political will to ensure fair and effective trials can be held.”

The 71-page report, “Still Waiting: Bringing Justice for War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Cantonal and District Courts,” details the numerous practical and political problems impeding these trials.

The obstacles include that prosecutors’ offices lack sufficient staff and generally do not specialize in one type of crime. Cooperation between prosecutors and police and between police across entity lines continues to be problematic. Witness protection measures are rarely, if ever, employed, and witness support services are generally not available. Prosecutors often fail to make use of available sources of evidence and do not take steps necessary to secure suspect attendance at trial. Defense attorneys generally lack access to training in relevant areas of law and are often inadequately, or not at all, compensated for their work. Some cantonal and district courts have yet to try a single case.

“Clearly, there are resource constraints in the entity justice systems, and the Bosnian authorities need to ensure that those doing effective work on these cases have the tools that they need,” said Franco.

“But resources cannot explain all of the shortcomings in these trials. Prosecutors, police, judges, and others who are not fulfilling their duty to investigate and try these cases need to be pressed to do more with what they have.”

The legal system also suffers from several serious deficiencies. A lack of law harmonization in Bosnia’s four justice systems leads to inconsistent interpretations of key points of law and to widely differing punishments for similar crimes. Courts often do not respect the precedent of other courts, including the ICTY. The absence of formalized cooperation or a framework for extradition with neighboring countries makes it impossible to try many cases.

In addition, trials for war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia that are being prosecuted in cantonal and district courts in Bosnia are often invisible to the public due to insufficient outreach and a lack of accurate, publicly available information on these trials.

“Without public understanding of the process, it is hard for victims, witnesses, and society at large to trust the fairness of the trials,” said Franco.

“In the absence of accurate information, there is a tendency to interpret these proceedings in a way that conforms to preexisting political beliefs,” he said.

The recent signing of a stabilization and association agreement between Bosnia and the European Union (EU) underscores the importance of the EU’s commitment to building the rule of law and of supporting political stability in the country. The EU should prioritize the needs of cantonal and district courts dealing with these war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide,Human Rights Watch said.

The report includes detailed recommendations of steps that local and national authorities, as well as the European Union and other governments, can take in order to address the pressing problems standing in the way of justice for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
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COMMITTEE OF THE EU REGIONS SUPPORTS POTENTIAL NEW EU MEMBER STATES

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - The Committee of the EU Regions supports accession of all candidate states and potential candidates under condition that they fulfill all pre-accession criteria, stated the Committee Chair Jos Chabert after the Work Group meeting for the southeastern Europe held in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

The meeting was attended by 35 representatives from EU states, mayors of Sarajevo, Brcko, Mostar, Banja Luka and Tuzla and representatives of Sarajevo Canton.

Chabert stated that the Committee, after the painful experience with the Irish “No” on referendum on Lisbon Treaty, still believes that the accession process must continue.

He underlined the importance of coming local elections in Bosnia and announced that the Committee, along with the Council of Europe shall send an observer mission in order to make sure that democratic standards are honored the upcoming elections in Bosnia.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) is a body of the European Union (EU) established in 1994. It represents the sub-national regions of the EU in the EU legislative process, but only in a consultative manner similar to the Economic and Social Committee.

The CoR is the political assembly that provides local and regional authorities with a voice at the heart of the European Union. It aims at increasing the participation of European regions in community life. The CoR, whose seat is in Brussels, is composed of 344 representatives of regional and local governments.
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BOSNIAN BANKS TO INCREASE SAVINGS AND DEPOSIT INTEREST RATES

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - Berislav Kutle, general director of UniCredit Bank, announced higher interest rates on savings and deposits in banks, after loan interest rates were increased. Average deposit interest in Bosnia is only 0.45 per cent, while one-year term deposits bring 4 percent on an average.

Kutle stressed that a growth in passive interest rates on the money saved in the Bosnian banks must be increased, as a result of global, as well as local, financial trends.
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BOSNIAN LEASING MARKET CONSTANTLY GROWING

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 10,2008) - The Bosnian Leasing Association presented in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo yesterday its main objectives, a market analysis and financial indicators for the current year.

The Association was formed in 2005 by the then market leaders: Hypo Alpe-Adria Leasing, Raiffeisen Leasing and VB Leasing. Since then, three more members have joined them.

With regard to the Association’s financial indicators in the first half of 2008, car leasing was worth EUR 73.1 million, real estate leasing EUR 69.5 million, and so on.

In total, the funding by leasing companies in Bosnia was worth EUR 189.4 million (4,016 contracts) – 32.4 per cent more compared to the first half of 2007.

As far as market shares are concerned, HAA Leasing leads with 44 per cent and Raiffeisen follows with 28 per cent.
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