BIRN Holds Meetings on Regional War Crimes Prosecution Cooperation

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BIRN organised meetings of transitional justice stakeholders in Zagreb and Sarajevo in June to develop recommendations for improving regional cooperation in prosecuting crimes committed during the 1990s wars.

BIRN journalist Erna Mackic interviews former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, who took part in the meeting on regional cooperation in war crimes processing.

BIRN held meetings in Zagreb and Sarajevo with shareholders at the end of June as part of its Balkan Transitional Justice programme – representatives of victims’ associations and the judiciary, as well as NGO members and humanitarian law experts.

These closed expert meetings discussed the issue of regional cooperation between state authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia on prosecuting crimes from the 1990s wars.

At the meetings, participants raised their concerns about potential problems and offered possible solutions.

This input, along with input from meetings that wil take place in Belgrade and Pristina in early September, will be formulated into recommendations.

After all four meetings with stakeholders, one final conference will be held at the regional level in Sarajevo at the beginning of October.

The recommendations from the stakeholders’ meetings and the conference will be used for creating a policy paper for improving regional cooperation between states in prosecuting war crimes.