Accountability should finish at home
I signed this open letter concerning Serbian lack of prosecution of war criminals, in particular the murderers of the Bytyqi brothers, but let me add that I feel no less strongly about Kosovar, Bosnian and Croatian failures in this domain. All their now more or less democratic governments need to take a hard look in the mirror and get busy with the difficult business of holding people accountable for horrendous crimes in the 1990s. Accountability may not start at home, but it should finish there.
OPEN LETTER TO
JOSEPH BIDEN, THE U.S. VICE PRESIDENT,
JOHN KERRY, THE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE,
FEDERICA MOGHERINI, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE E.U. FOR
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY,
JOHANNES HAHN, E.U. COMMISSIONER FOR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY & ENLARGEMENT NEGOTIATIONS,
THE EUROPEAN UNION FOREIGN AFFAIRS COUNCIL,
THE U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, AND
THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
As former representatives of the United States government, authors, human rights activists, and academics who have closely followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and Serbia’s subsequent efforts to resolve the many war crimes committed during that period, we are deeply concerned by the slow pace of Serbia’s domestic war crimes prosecutions, including its failure to resolve the murders of Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi, three brothers who were executed and dumped on top of a mass grave seventeen years ago today.
Since the position’s inception in 2003, the Serbian war crimes prosecutor has indicted no senior Serbian military or police officials, no government officials, and no persons of any rank involved in the removal from Kosovo and reburial in Serbia of more than 900 Albanian bodies – a deliberate “cover-up operation”.[i] Prosecutors filed only seven indictments in 2014, the majority of which were the result of complete investigatory files transferred from prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[ii] In 2015, they only issued two, neither of which was confirmed.[iii] This is not a record to be proud of.
In the Bytyqi case, a Serbian President[iv] and the two most recent Prime Ministers[v] have repeatedly promised resolution since 2006, but have failed to take adequate steps to secure this result. Instead, reports indicate that a primary suspect has intimidated witnesses and remains close to senior members of the current government.[vi]
International and domestic NGOs, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Commission, have diagnosed numerous problems with Serbia’s war crimes record. Uniformly, each cites a lack of political will and political interference as impeding accountability.[vii]
Similarly, witnesses will never come forward and cases will not be resolved when government Ministers host “welcome home” parties[viii] for returning convicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and suggest there be a political loyalty test when selecting the chief war crimes prosecutor.[ix]
Though the ICTY is winding down, the hard work for its countries of focus is nowhere near complete. Across the Balkans, tens of thousands of victims and their families deserve closure. Henceforth, only domestic prosecutions will have the ability to deliver them justice.
To date, Serbia’s record has been a dismal one that is ultimately unacceptable. Therefore, we urge you and the entities you represent to take constructive steps to ensure better commitment and effort by Serbia’s leaders and institutions to resolve war crimes cases, including the Bytyqi Brothers case. This issue should be raised as part of your continuing dialogue with the Serbian government, parliament and civil society leaders.
Sincerely,
| Ambassador Robert L. Barry (ret.)
former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and Indonesia former Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tanya Domi Adjunct Professor, Columbia University Advisor, Freedom House
Praveen Madhiraju pro bono advisor to the Bytyqi family
Nataša Kandić Founder, Humanitarian Law Center Coordinator, RECOM process
Sonja Biserko Chair Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Sandra Orlović Executive Director Humanitarian Law Center
Jelena Milić Director Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies
Milica Kostić Legal Director Humanitarian Law Center
Goran Miletić Program Director for the Western Balkans Civil Rights Defenders
David Tolbert President International Center for Transitional Justice C. Dixon Osburn Executive Director Center for Justice & Accountability
Fred Abrahams Author & Researcher
Kelly Dawn Askin former Senior Legal Officer for International Justice Open Society Justice Initiative
Nina Bang-Jensen former Executive Director, Coalition for International Justice Senior Peace Fellow, Public International Law & Policy Group
Kurt Bassuener Senior Associate Democratization Policy Council
Holly Cartner Human Rights Lawyer
Stefanie Frease Senior Associate Democratization Policy Council
James R. Hooper Independent Consultant
Maxine Marcus International Crimes Prosecutor and Investigator Expert in Transformative Justice for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Formerly Prosecuting Attorney at ICTY
Pamela Merchant former Executive Director Center for Justice and Accountability
Glenn C. Nye former Member of Congress & U.S. Diplomat
Dr. Valery Perry Senior Associate Democratization Policy Council
Florian Bieber Professor University of Graz
Robert Kogod Goldman Professor of Law & Louis C. James Scholar American University Washington College of Law; former President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
András Riedlmayer Bibliographer, Documentation Center for Islamic Art and Architecture, Harvard University Editor, International Justice Watch
Naomi Roht-Arriaza Distinguished Professor of Law and Thomas Miller Chair University of California Hastings College of Law
Daniel Serwer Professor Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Dr. Paul R. Williams Rebecca Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations American University
Laurel E. Fletcher Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Aida A. Hozic Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science University of Florida
Dr. Paula M. Pickering Associate Professor of Government College of William and Mary
Gabor Rona Visiting Professor of Law Cardozo Law School
Susana SáCouto Executive Director, War Crimes Research Office American University Washington College of Law
Milada Anna Vachudova Jean Monnet Chair of EU Studies & Associate Professor of Political Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Arnaud Kurze Assistant Professor of Justice Studies Montclair State University
Nenad Stojanović Visiting Research Scholar Princeton University
Jasmin Hasić PhD Candidate Universite libre de Bruxelles and LUISS Guido Carli of Rome
Jessie Hronesova DPhil Candidate in Politics University of Oxford
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[i] Humanitarian Law Center, Report on war crimes trials in Serbia during 2014 and 2015, pp. 9-10 (Mar. 2016), available at http://www.hlc-rdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Report_on_war_crimes_trials_in_Serbia_during_2014_and_2015.pdf; Hugh Williamson, Letter to Vice President Joe Biden, (June 1, 2015), available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/01/letter-vice-president-joe-biden; Amnesty International, Serbia: Ending Impunity for Crimes Under International Law, p. 20 (June 17, 2014), available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/EUR70/012/2014/en/;
[ii] Humanitarian Law Center, Report on war crimes trials in Serbia during 2014 and 2015, p. 8. See also, OSCE Mission to Serbia, War crimes proceedings in Serbia (2003-2014), pp. 40-44 (2015), available at http://www.osce.org/serbia/194461?download=true (reviewing history and counting six indictments in 2014).
[iii] Humanitarian Law Center, Report on war crimes trials in Serbia during 2014 and 2015, p. 8. See also Amnesty International, Serbia 2015/2016, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/serbia/report-serbia/.
[iv] Pravda.Ru, Serbian president Boris Tadic promises to bring killers of Americans of Kosovo origin to justice, Pravda.Ru (Jan. 18, 2006), available at http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/18-01-2006/74278-0/.
[v] Marija Ristic, Serbia’s Broken Promises Over US Albanians’ Murders, (Jul. 20, 2015), available at www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bytyqi-case-a-decade-long-brocken-promises-1; Carl Schreck, Serbia PM Promises ‘Justice’ in 1999 Slaying of U.S. Brothers (Jun. 4, 2015), available at www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bytyqi-case-a-decade-long-brocken-promises-1.
[vi] WikiLeaks State Dept. Cables, Serbia: ICTY Prosecutor Calls for Arrest of Remaining Fugitives, Local Prosecutor Skeptical, (Apr. 22, 2008, available at https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08BELGRADE412_a.html.
[vii] Hugh Williamson, Letter to Vice President Joe Biden, (June 1, 2015), available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/01/letter-vice-president-joe-biden; Amnesty International, Serbia: Ending Impunity for Crimes Under International Law, pp 5, 7, & 11 (June 17, 2014); Humanitarian Law Center, Ten Years of War Crimes Prosecutions in Serbia: Contours of Justice, pp. 10-11 (Oct. 2014), available at http://www.hlc-rdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Analiza_2004-2013_eng.pdf; OSCE Mission to Serbia, War crimes proceedings in Serbia (2003-2014), pp. 12, 24 (2015), European Commission Staff Working Document, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, p. 19 (Nov. 10, 2015), available at http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2015/20151110_report_serbia.pdf.
[viii] Marija Ristic, Hague Prosecutor Slams Serbia’s Welcome for War Criminal, BalkanInsight (Dec. 10, 2015), available at http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/brammertz-critised-serbia-for-welcoming-war-criminal-12-10-2015.
[ix] Ivana Nikolic, Serbia Govt Criticised for ‘Politicising’ Prosecutors’ Jobs, BalkanInsight (Dec. 24, 2015), available at www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbian-ngo-slam-justice-minister-over-prosecutors-election-12-23-2015-1/1431/2.
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