On the eve of the verdict in 2014 that convicted him of war crimes for ordering an artillery strike on the town of Tuzla that killed 71 people, Novak Djukic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Ozren Tactical Group, fled to Serbia.
The Bosnian state court sentenced Djukic to 20 years in prison, but he is still living freely in Serbia, where the authorities have so far not agreed to take over the enforcement of the verdict that convicted the Bosnian Serb commander of ordering the attack in May 1995.
A warrant for Djukic was issued in October 2014, but the Higher Court in Belgrade has postponed – several times – a hearing at which the takeover of responsibility for his imprisonment was due to be discussed.
Djukic’s case is just one of around 40 cases in which the Bosnian authorities are seeking people who are suspected or accused of genocide or war crimes who currently reside in Serbia or Croatia. Among them are former Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Tomislav Kovac and Zlatan Mijo Jelic, a retired general from the Bosnian Croat wartime force, the Croatian Defence Council.
War victims from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes court in The Hague, Serge Brammertz, have repeatedly criticised the continuing delays in Serbia taking over the enforcement of the sentence in the Djukic case.
“It is definitely one of the cases we have been mentioning for the last two years, that it is unacceptable that this judgment is not being executed. It is a judgment which has been rendered by jurisdictions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, respecting all procedural safeguards, and it is the duty, based on international conventions, of Serbia to execute this sentence,” said Brammertz.
‘Leave our men alone’
In 2013, the prosecutor’s offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia signed protocols enabling the free exchange of war crime cases, investigations and case documents. Despite the fact that several cases have been exchanged and processed, very few against high-ranking suspects have been successfully transferred to neighbouring countries’ jurisdictions.
On top of that, numerous suspects have never been arrested, nor have proceedings been brought against them.
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