Category: Stories

Prisoners may be better off staying in The Hague than face being sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina”s dangerous and crumbling prison system. The disparity in detention facilities between the new State Court War Crimes Chamber and the resources available to the lower courts is just one of the credibility issues facing the international community’s latest effort to spur reconciliation between the ethnic factions in BiH.

Abduladhim Maktouf, the first war crimes defendant to be tried in the BiH State Court, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. However, Maktouf”s history shows how war and crime mixed in odd ways in Bosnia-Herzegovina and how the first war crimes case was about much more than war crimes.

The new BiH War Crimes Court Chamber and truth and reconciliation commissions are promising the hope of changing hearts on all sides of the conflict. But court observers, international experts and even members of the court itself, agree that there are many logistical and political problems that threaten the success of the court, even with the backing of €16 million in international donations for the next two years.

A Rwandan prosecutor seated earlier this year as one of eight international judges for the new War Crimes Chamber has come to Sarajevo with uncommon experience dealing with genocide. But Judge Gerald Gahima has left behind in Africa some unanswered questions about his finances and his conduct in office.

A nationwide poll shows that BiH is skeptical that a new War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo will do much to promote forgiveness among Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.