By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

In a comment issued on November 3, 2011, Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner on Human Rights for the Council of Europe, challenged politicians of the Balkans region and Europe to bring to justice those remaining war criminals who engaged in ethnic cleansing in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s, and to bring durable peace by appropriately and effectively aiding the remaining displaced persons.

During the 1990s, the countries which comprised the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and two “autonomous provinces” Kosovo and Vojvodina = experienced a period of “intense political and economic crisis.” The entire Federation was at war with each other—the single worst atrocity having occurred in 1995 “when the Bosnian town of Srebrenica…came under attack by forces lead by the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic.” During this particular act of genocide the Serbian military executed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

While the political crisis is technically over, the region remains in turmoil. According to Hammarberg, there are still about 438,000 refugees and displaced persons whose “legitimate claims have not yet been met, and for whom durable solutions have not been found.”  Furthermore, during the 1990s nearly 40,000 people went missing —of which an astonishing 14,000 so remain.

For example, more than 2,000 Roma (Gypsies) fled from Kosovo during the Balkan wars and still live in the Konik refugee camp near Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. In an article published by the BBC, a refugee named Veseb Berisa speaks about the living conditions in the camp:

“My family and I have nothing to eat, nothing to wear, nowhere to take a proper shower. We have been like this for ten years. I work all day every day scouring the rubbish tips for metal to sell and maybe, if I am lucky, to earn 200 euros a month to feed my family…I had a job in Kosovo. I ran my own business buying and selling fruits and vegetables…The worst thing about the camp is that it’s dirty. The hygiene here is terrible. It causes so many health problems. Everything we have is dirty. Nothing can stay clean here…a lot of people are sick in the camp…most have [sickness in their] lungs because the air here is so foul. Lots of others have problems with their hearts and blood pressure. But in ten years of living here, I’ve only seen the [United Nations] help one boy who was sick…No one helps us anymore. No one comes to see how we are or how we live…we are people too. We are humans. We need help from the [United Nations], from the Albanians and Serbs who put us in this situation. What do they think in America, in the UK? They are also responsible for the conditions we live in. They have done nothing to help us. “

Overlooking the appalling conditions in which refugees live, the mayor of Podgorica said that, “the refugees should go back to where they came from.” However, for many like Veseb Berisa, the refugee camps are “home.” Their houses in Kosovo have been burned, their lives there “destroyed.”

There are still “a number of war criminals who have not yet been brought to justice—among them killers and rapists.” Furthermore, those who have yet to be captured have abused amnesty laws to “avoid accountability” for their “alleged acts of torture and other serious crimes.”  Unfortunately, the prosecutions have “not had full political support and there have been outright obstructions by some political parties,” leading to institutional difficulties of protecting witnesses and ensuring justice is administered to the victims and their families. Hammarberg went on to state that the trials are vital for “seeking the truth of the overall picture of what actually happened during the war years.”

Key political leader from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, are scheduled to meet next week in Belgrade to discuss “durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced persons.”

For more information, please visit:

Council of Europe – Only Genuine Justice Can Ensure Durable Peace in the Balkans – 3 November 2011

BBC – Living In Filth for Ten Years – 20 June 2009

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – The Former Yugoslavia-Conflicts