By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia – A war crimes tribunal in Serbia convicted and sentenced two Serbs for perpetrating war crimes during the conflict for independence in Croatia between 1991 and 1995.

On Monday March 15, Pano Bulat and Rade Vranesevic were found guilty by the War Crimes Council of the Belgrade High Court for murdering six civilians in March 1992 during the conflict.

Mr. Bulat and Mr Vranesevic were tried in Serbia because they were both Serbian residents. However, the prosecution proceeded pursuant to an agreement between Serbia and Croatia to cooperate on prosecuting the war criminals.

The six civilians were between the ages of 63 and 81; five were female and one was male. All the victims were killed in Banatski Kovacevac, a town in eastern Croatia. They were given twelve and fifteen year sentences, respectively, for their roles in perpetrating these war crimes

The Court found that the victims were killed with an automatic rifle by Mr. Vranesevic and a pistol by Mr. Bulat. The victims bodies were later burned. In sentencing the men, the Court emphasized that the victims were not part of any police or military group.

Mr. Bulat and Mr. Vranesevic were both members of Republika Srpska Krajina, a self-proclaimed army in territory held by rebel Serbs. Republika Srpska Krajina, and other militant groups, were opposing Croatia’s 1991 declared independence from the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

Bruno Vekaric, the Serbian Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor, praised the result as a victory for justice. Mr. Vekaric also highlighted the cooperation between Serbia and Croatia as a success, and said he looked forward to 28 other war crimes prosecutions in which the countries are currently working together.

According to the AP, Serbia continues to cooperate in war crimes prosecutions against its citizens and residents in an effort to seek admission to the European Union.

For more information, please see:

ASSOCIATED PRESS – 2 convicted in Serbia for Croatia war crimes – 16 March 2010

B92 – Conviction for war crimes in Croatia – 15 March 2010

JAVNO – Two Serbs jailed for Croatia war crimes – 15 March 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch, Europe Desk

LONDON, England –  The British government has asked a panel of Supreme Court justices to overturn a landmark ruling granting UK troops serving abroad the protection of human rights laws. The ruling, which stated that British soldiers abroad must be protected by the Human Rights Act when fighting outside their bases, emerged from a case involving the death of Scottish Private Jason Smith in Basra, Iraq.  This ruling effectively extended to troops the right to sue over decisions made on the battlefield.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has stated that it is not possible to guarantee rights under the European Convention to British soldiers on duty anywhere in the world. Representing the MoD, James Eadie of the Queen’s Counsel (QC) said: “Effective and faithful application of the convention means that not only must they have exclusive legal and physical control over persons who benefit from it, but also legal and physical control over both the area of its application and over those other persons within that area.”

He said further that this would impose an obligation on the UK to ensure that British soldiers could “enjoy convention rights without hindrance, even from those Afghans over whom the UK has no legislative or practical control and where the territory is not controlled by the UK.” Eadie argued that the imposition of a “legal duty of care” would create a disproportional risk that decision making by the military would be more “cumbersome” and result in less effective military leadership and tactical decision-making.

Retired Major-General Patrick Cordingley who commanded the Seventh Armoured Brigade in the Gulf War said: “Life is hugely complex in battle situations and commanders cannot be expected to have to worry about every aspect of the Human Rights Act once they’re engaged in operations.”

Private Smith served with the Territorial Army and was deployed to Iraq in June 2003. He repeatedly told medical staff that the was feeling ill due to high temperatures, and reported sick in August of 2003. He was found lying face down and was taken to a hospital, but had sustained cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead. 

Photo: Private Jason Smith and his niece. / Source: Times Online

His mother, Catherine Smith, began legal proceedings after she was initially denied access to documents during an inquest into her son’s death. After struggling seven years to secure a more thorough investigation into her son’s death and to achieve greater protection of soldiers’ rights, the Court of Appeal finally ruled in her favor last May.

At the inquest, Andrew Walker, the assistant deputy coroner of Oxfordshire said that Smith’s death was caused “by a serious failure to recognize and take appropriate steps to address the difficulty that he had in adjusting to the climate.”

The High Court ruled in Smith’s case that soldiers on British military bases or hospitals are covered by the Human Rights Act. Furthermore, Justice Collins ruled that a state might be in breach of its obligation to ensure the human rights of soldiers if it could have taken steps to avoid or minimize a known risk to human life but neglected to do so. 

The Court of Appeal took the High Court’s ruling further and argued that as British soldiers were subject to British jurisdiction wherever they went, the link between British soldiers and the UK extended beyond beyond British military bases and hospitals abroad.

Smith’s attorney, Jocelyn Cockburn, responded to the Government’s challenge to the Court of Appeal ruling saying: “How can it be right for servicemen and women to lose their human rights protections when they are sent abroad to fight on our behalf?”

Cockburn referred to Eadie’s claims that the ruling would render the military ineffective as “scaremongering,” and said that the Human Rights Act required that “reasonable steps” be taken by the government to protect the lives of British soldiers abroad.  She said: “I don’t think a court would second guess in any circumstances what a commander decides to do in the heat of battle.”  She added: “The issues that could be affected are military planning and the putting in place of, and adhering to, systems to protect soldiers.”

The ruling by the Court of Appeal also requires coroners to conduct more probing inquests in the the causes of death of British troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is speculated that this requirement will likely result in further revelations regarding the failure of military equipment and troop training.

Cockburn stated: “One can only wonder whether we would be hearing the constant complaints of lack of equipment for service personnel if the government had recognized their ‘human rights’ from the start. Rather than appealing this case the Secretary of State [Robert Ainsworth] should be prioritizing the safety of his troops.”

The Supreme Court justices are scheduled to hear attorneys representing Catherine Smith, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Oxfordshire Coroner during a three-day hearing. The outcome of the hearing will impact future inquests into the deaths of soldiers.

Mrs. Smith told The Times: “Jason’s life would have been really wasted if I do not keep this going . . . Soldiers have got a right to life. They are fighting to keep our country safe.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – UK troops human rights ruling challenged by government – 15 March 2010

The Guardian – Supreme court considers UK soldiers’ right to sue over military missions – 15 March 2010

The Telegraph – Government challenges court ruling to protect human rights of soldiers – 15 March 2010

The Times Online – Giving soldiers human rights in war zones ‘will hamper battlefield commanders‘ – 14 March 2010

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

GROZ, Austria – Austrian governmental officials have announced the discovery of two mass graves created for victims of the Nazis in World War II.

The grave sites were found on property used by the Austrian Army in the city of Graz in southern Austria. The Austrian Army had been using the land as a sports field and recreational area for service men.

The mass graves were discovered on the basis of photographs taken during World War II. The aerial photos were taken by United States bombers and showed discernible uncovered graves with dozens of visible bodies.

Government officials have begin to seek out the property owners to begin exhuming the bodies. But Rudolf Gollia, the Austrian Interior Ministry spokesperson, said he could not confirm whether the Austrian army owns or rents the involved property.

The Austrian government says that the mass graves contain approximately 70 corpses. Officials have said that most of the victims were in Nazi concentration camps, and these victims were killed by Nazi leaders to prevent witnesses from testifying against them as Soviets entered the country near the end of World War II.

An Austrian Army report suggests that a few of the bodies might be American fighter pilots shot down in Austria by the Nazis.

For more information, please see:

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Austrian govt finds mass graves of Nazi victims – 12 March 2010

IRELAND ON-LINE – Dozens of bodies found in Nazi mass graves – 12 March 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Austria: Mass Graves of Nazi Victims Are Found – 12 March 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands – Dutch Roman Catholic bishops have ordered an independent inquiry into over 200 reported cases of alleged sexual abuse of children by priests, with investigations slated to begin “as soon a possible.”  The Dutch Catholic Church also issued a statement offering its apologies to the victims. The allegations, which first centered on a monastery school in the eastern part of the Netherlands, soon sparked dozens more allegations across the country. 

New allegations of abuse have not been confined the the Netherlands; on Tuesday it emerged that Bruno Becker, head of a monastery in Salzburg, Austria, confessed to having abused a boy forty years ago when he was a monk. Church authorities quickly accepted his resignation on Monday.

Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the sexual abuse scandals were particularly reprehensible in light of the educational and moral responsibilities of the Catholic Church. He also said that Church institutions in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands have “demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date[s] many years ago.”

Father Lombardi also denied that the Vatican has tried to erect a “wall of silence” around the scandals.

On Monday, German justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger accused the Vatican of erecting the “wall of silence” surrounding abuse cases, and said that the Vatican secrecy rules were complicating German efforts to investigate the claims of abuse. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger also cited a 2001 rule from the Vatican requiring abuse cases to be investigated internally as having hindered investigations.

There are currently investigations into abuse allegations underway in eighteen of Germany’s twenty-seven Roman Catholic dioceses. In January, pupils at the Jesuit-run Canisius College in Berlin were the first to come forward with allegations of abuse, prompting many others to come forward in subsequent weeks.

Allegations that abuse occurred at a church choir in the Regensburg Diocese have made the Vatican particularly uneasy. The choir was run from 1964-1993 by Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, Father Georg Ratzinger.  The abuse, however, is alleged to have occurred before Father Ratzinger took charge of the choir. Although he has denied any knowledge of the sex abuse cases, he admitted that he knew discipline was strict, and said that he had, himself, sometimes slapped students in the face.  He told the Passauer Neue Presse:

“Pupils told me on concert trips about what went on. But it didn’t dawn on me from their stories that I should do something. I was not aware of the extent of these brutal methods.” He added: “At the start, I also slapped people in the face, but I always had a bad conscience.”

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of the German Bishops, has apologized for the abuse, and is scheduled to meet with the Pope later this week to discuss the scandal. The German Catholic Church has pledged to investigate all 170 allegations of abuse and to investigate whether Pope Benedict XVI knew about the sex scandals when he was a bishop in Bavaria between 1977 and 1994. Father Karl Jüsten, spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference in Germany, said:

“We do not know if the Pope knew about the abuse cases . . . However, we assume that this is not the case.”

The abuse cases have  prompted German legislators to discuss the possibility of changing Germany’s statute of limitations to allow for the prosecution of priests.

 For more information,  please see:

The Times Online – German Catholic Church pledges to investigate all 170 allegations of abuse – 11 March 2010

BBC – Dutch Bishops order abuse inquiry – 10 March 2010

Deutsche Welle – Archbishop will report to Pope on abuse in German church schools – 10 March 2010

Radio Netherlands World Wide – Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal widens – 10 March 2010

BBC – Vatican accused over German sex abuse allegations – 8 March 2010

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian official has suggested compiling fingerprints of the entire population of the North Caucasus as a measure to prevent and restrain crime in the region.

The North Caucasus an excessively problematic and violent region of the Russian Federation. The North Caucasus is also home to a large Muslim population, and ethnic tension has certainly contributed to the violence.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Alexksandr Bastrykin, proposed on March 4 that the Kremlin compile a database of the fingerprints of all North Caucasus residents. DNA samples would also be submitted for inclusion in the database.

Mr. Bastrykin also suggested that Russia re-register all motor vehicles and issue new license plates for North Caucasus residents as part of a solution to “stabilize” the region.

Human rights groups criticized the suggestion, which appears to have some support at the federal level. For example, Lyudmila Alexkseyeva, a Russian human rights advocate, said that the fingerprinting plan is entirely “discriminatory”, calling such a practice “unacceptable in [any] civilized country.”

Tanya Lokshina, a human rights advocate for Human Rights Watch in Moscow, agreed, arguing that the proposed plan violated the European Convention of Human Rights. Ms. Lokshina also predicted that the progam would “antagonize people further in an already volatile region.”

Mr. Bastrykin suggested that the fingerprint and license plate programs would merely be pilots in the North Caucasus, and could later be extended to other parts of Russia where crime is prevalent. He suggested that the programs would not be used in a discriminatory matter, but instead would only be used “to centralize records and investigate crime”.

Chechen Republic spokesman, Alvi Kerimov, agreed with human rights groups and advocates. Mr. Kerimov stressed that if fingerprinting were to be introduced, it should not be used exclusively in the North Caucasus, but instead throughout the Russian Federation.

For more information, please see:

MOSCOW TIMES – Investigators Propose Fingerprinting in Caucasus – 9 March 2010

ITAR-TASS – Investigation Committee suggests total fingerprint/DNA registration in Russia – 5 March 2010

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Russian Official Suggests Fingerprinting Entire North Caucasus – 5 March 2010

REUTERS – Russia proposes fingerprinting for volatile N.Caucasus – 5 March 2010