Recently implemented activities of the joint team on detection and prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes committed  in Štrpci in 1993 were discussed at the meeting, as well as the significant progress achieved in this case that the Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade is  working on intensively.

The Joint team has recently made a series of activities that were deemed as very successful.

During the meeting the parties discussed the activities related to finding witnesses of war crimes, who are located on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, and about the realization of their testimony in cases pending at the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of Serbia via video link or other legally prescribed ways.

One of the topics of the meeting were war crimes cases concerning Srebrenica area and other localities, in which the Prosecutor’s Office from Belgrade provides significant support and assistance to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH in terms of suspects and accused persons who are located  in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Chief Prosecutor Salihović informed the colleagues from Belgrade that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH will soon issue an indictment against several persons for war crimes committed against Serb victims in the vicinity of Sarajevo, where dozens of ethnic  Serbs, including children and the elderly, were killed and whose families are now displaced persons in BIH and Serbia.

The colleagues from Belgrade were also informed that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH is on the verge of resolving a case related to suffering of ethnic Serb victims, which happened at the very beginning of the war. Part of the families of the victims can be located in the territory of Serbia. This is a case in which substantial cooperation was achieved with the Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.

To protect the interests of the investigation and prosecution, these cases can not be discussed in further detail at this time.

War crimes cases concerning Višegrad and its surroundings often refer to the same persons who were present in the area during the war; the Prosecution in Belgrade is working on war crimes cases committed in Štrpci and Sjeverin, where the victims were citizens of Serbia, hence the two prosecutor’s offices require intensive and long-term cooperation in the prosecution of such cases.

The already initiated cooperation in other war crimes cases was also discussed at the meeting as well as cases in which cooperation will commence in the near future, and these involve cases in which the perpetrators or the victims are located in the territory of both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

During the meeting, the parties agreed on concrete steps to be taken in the future but the details of such activities can not be communicated to the public in order to protect the interests of the investigation.

It was also agreed that the meetings of the two prosecutor’s offices and field work would continue in the future with greater intensity as the work on the cases demands it.

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of Serbia will continue their intensive cooperation in prosecution of war crimes in the future in the interest of entrenching the rule of law,  prosecuting the perpetrators of war crimes and creating a safer living environment for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in line with the forthcoming process of European integration.