ON APRIL 19, 2012 THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF BIH ATTENDED A ROUNDTABLE ON PROSECUTION OF WAR CRIMES, ORGANIZED BY THE OSCE MISSION IN BIH IN SREBRENICA

Representatives of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH have presented on the structure of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and the Special Department for War Crimes, the previous work on war crimes committed in BiH, as well as difficulties that this institution faces in its work on war crimes cases to the representatives of victims associations.

The presentations have, in addition to work on war crimes cases,, depicted the work on the exhumations of those missing from the past war which are supervised by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH as of January 1, 2011.

These presentations have shown the complexity of the work on war crimes and emphasized that these are matters that relate to events that occurred 16 years ago or more and that often, during the investigation, dozens of witnesses must be examined and hundreds of evidence gathered, which is why some of the cases require a longer period of time for prosecution.

Representatives of associations of camp prisoners and war victims had the opportunity to ask questions relating to war crimes in the wider Srebrenica area as well as to ask the representatives of the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH and the Bijeljina District Prosecutor's Office questions concerning the operation of these institutions and war crimes committed in the aforementioned area.

Participants of these roundtables expressed their gratitude to the OSCE Mission in BiH for recognizing the importance of such meetings and the cooperation between the judiciary and the families of victims and have pointed out that these meetings should be organized regularly at certain intervals.

As the common goal of all is to ensure speedier prosecution of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the cooperation of judicial institutions with representatives of associations of victims of the past war shall continue in the future.