REGIONAL COOPERATION OF PROSECUTOR’S OFFICES – ONE OF THE KEY ELEMENTS IN WAR CRIMES PROSECUTION

At the regional conference of Prosecutor’s Offices, which is being held at the highest international level in Palić in Serbia, strong international support was extended to the ongoing regional cooperation between the respective Prosecutor’s Offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia related to the prosecution of war crimes cases. 

Strong support to the regional cooperation was emphasized by Mr. Hassan Jallow, Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), as well as by the representatives of the ICTY Office of the Prosecutor and officials of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

The Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Goran Salihović, spoke at the conference about the development of regional cooperation, as well as about the efforts invested in that segment by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the largest number of war crimes cases in the region is being prosecuted in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Chief Prosecutor Salihović also spoke about the results of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved in 2014, which will be the best results in the history of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the fact that in the history of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the past 10 years, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued war crimes Indictments against 402 accused persons was also stressed, which makes it the largest number of the accused persons among the countries in the region. 

In his presentation, the Chief Prosecutor Salihović stressed the importance of regional cooperation between the Prosecutor’s Offices in the prosecution of war crimes cases, as well as of the cooperation that is being realized with the Offices of the Prosecutor at the ICTY and MICT, respectively.   

The conference in Palić is being held on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the regional cooperation in war crimes cases, which was initiated by the conference held in Palić in 2004 and which was continued by annual conferences held in Brioni.

International support to the establishment of the rule of law and prosecution of war crimes cases, as well as support to the independence of the judiciary and prevention of any political influence on judiciary are extremely important to the Prosecutors in the region. 

At the conference, Prosecutor’s Offices in the region presented their plans and strategies for future work aimed at resolving the largest possible number of war crimes cases, and, in that respect, regional cooperation represents one of the most important elements.

The conference was attended by the representatives of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia, State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, EULEX, ICTY Office of the Prosecutor, MICT Office of the Prosecutor, OSCE Mission, respectively, as well as by the representatives of the diplomatic core in the Republic of Serbia.