Barring Bosnia's War Criminals From Politics
Barring Bosnia's War Criminals From Politics
When convicted war criminal Simo Zaric was earlier this year named deputy mayor of the very town in which his offences were committed, it caused outrage among human rights activists and survivors groups.
In October 2003, the Hague tribunal sentenced Zaric to six years in prison for crimes against humanity and persecutions of non-Serbs in the town of Bosanski Samac in 1992. In 2004, Zaric was granted early release and returned to Bosanski Samac, where he soon became politically active.
Many observers pointed out that Zaric’s appointment as deputy mayor would do great damage to an already fragile process of reconciliation in Bosnia. But Zaric didn’t seem overly concerned. After all, he said, his appointment was perfectly legal and in accordance with the Bosnian laws.
And he was right. There is nothing in the Bosnian constitution, the current election law, or the Dayton Peace Agreement - which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war – to prevent convicted war criminals from holding public office.
The Dayton Peace Agreement, which forms the basis of Bosnian legislation, stipulates that persons indicted for war crimes cannot run in elections or hold public office. But it doesn’t say anything about those with convictions for such offences. One could argue that the creators of the Dayton accord, led by the United States diplomat Richard Holbrook, simply assumed that individuals convicted of war crimes wouldn’t be allowed to hold public or political posts either. But because the agreement doesn’t say that explicitly, Zaric’s appointment was made possible.
A foreign diplomat recently told me that the main problem with the Dayton Peace Agreement was that it was created for people with good intentions. But there are no good intentions in politics, he said. And in a country deeply divided along ethnic lines and not quite ready to face its recent past - such as Bosnia is today - one cannot rely on the good intentions of those interpreting the Dayton accord.
Admittedly, there have been some initiatives to change the election law so that persons convicted of war crimes could not be actively involved in politics. But the Bosnian Serbs are still refusing to endorse these changes, claiming that the only ones who would benefit from them are Bosniaks. Their logic is the following: since the majority of the people indicted by the Hague tribunal were Serbs, the majority of convicts who would be prevented from returning to politics, if these new provisions were accepted, would also be Serbs. And they claim this would not be fair.
Fifteen years have passed since the end of the bloody Bosnian war. The Hague tribunal, which indicted 161 persons for war crimes, has, in the meantime, concluded proceedings against 121 individuals. Of these, 26 have already served their sentences and returned home to Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. Most of them have kept a relatively low profile, and apart from Zaric, none of them have yet run for public office.
But in the years to come, there will be more and more convicts returning home after serving their sentences. One of them is former Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker, Momcilo Krajisnik, who was a close associate of the wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, currently standing trial for genocide and other war crimes at the tribunal.
Krajisnik, who was sentenced to 20 years for crimes against humanity and is doing time in Britain, in February 2010 won the right to apply for early release. The Bosnian media recently reported that he is already checking what the reaction of the Bosnian people would be if he returned to politics after serving his sentence.
There is no doubt that Bosnia is in great need of a new election law. And the authorities have to act fast, because they cannot afford to further polarise its divided nations by allowing those who were tried and convicted of war crimes to once again become decision makers - as if the war and the crimes had never even happened.
Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s Hague tribunal programme manager.
The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of IWPR.
