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Continued support from the EU for war crimes processing in BiH

SARAJEVO – An Agreement was signed yesterday between the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH to finance the activities of the prosecutors offices and the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina for processing war crimes, announced the Delegation of the EU to BiH. The Agreement, worth 7,438,000 EUR, serves to provide support for processing war crimes in 15 prosecutors’ offices and 8 courts in the period from March 2016 to February 2019.

This event marks the beginning of the implementation of the Project “Enhancing War Crime Case Processing in BiH” and represents the continuation of support for processing war crimes cases in BiH within the framework of the IPA 2012/2013 assistance package amounting to a total of 14.8 million euros which is earmarked for financing salaries for judges, prosecutors and support staff working on processing war crimes in the relevant courts and prosecutors offices throughout BiH as well as for covering the material expenses of the judicial institutions from processing war crimes.

The overall objective of the support effort is to reduce the number of war crime cases in the prosecutors offices involving identified suspects (i.e. KTRZ cases) by 50% within five years.

The Supervisory Body for Overseeing the Implementation of the National War Crimes Strategy stated that the implementation of project activities led to a 15% drop in the number of war crime cases in prosecutors’ offices (KTRZ) by mid-2015, thus fulfilling the objective that was set as part of the first phase of the Project. As of July, 2016, the total number of pending war crime cases was reduced by 23.4%.

With the IPA 2013 Project, the European Union has demonstrated its commitment to providing continued support for the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina in achieving greater efficiency in processing war crimes, and is confident that the positive results achieved during the earlier IPA 2012 Project will continue as to contribute to meeting the goals set with the National War Crimes Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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