In response to the démarche which Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued to the Republic of Serbia on account of the first-instance conviction of Husein Mujanović by the High Court in Belgrade, the Ministry of Justice notes that, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, offices of public prosecutors and courts of law are independent and impartial bodies which act pursuant to the laws of the Republic of Serbia as much as the ratified international treaties and the generally accepted rules of international law. Taking this into consideration, the démarche issued by Bosnia and Herzegovina is an attempt to politicise fight against impunity which in the Republic of Serbia is led by judicial organs, not daily politics.
The Ministry of Justice emphasises that the pillar of a modern legal order and the rule of law rests on the notion that no criminal offence, wherever it may have been committed, can go unpunished. This particularly refers to the most serious crimes under international humanitarian law. For that reason, the Republic of Serbia has incorporated the principle of non-applicability of statutory limitations to war crimes into its Constitution and national legislation, including the principle of universal jurisdiction in terms of territorial applicability of its criminal laws.
Therefore, when it comes to prosecuting war crimes, the criminal laws of the Republic of Serbia apply irrespective of where the subject war crimes were committed, i.e. whether on the territory of the Republic of Serbia or some place else. In this way, avoidance of criminal accountability of war crimes suspects by escaping to another country or by invoking territorial applicability of laws is prevented.
For that reason, the laws of the Republic of Serbia have proclaimed universal jurisdiction over the prosecution of war crimes, especially those committed during the 1990s armed conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Accordingly, bodies of the Republic of Serbia specialised in prosecuting war crimes – namely, the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor in Belgrade and the Special War Crimes Chamber of the High Court in Belgrade – , in trying in the first instance the former commander of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina Husein Mujanović, on 6 July 2020 sentenced him to ten years in imprisonment for war crimes committed against Serb civilians in 1992 in the Hrasnica detention camp near Sarajevo.
Having state bodies specialised in prosecuting war crimes on the territory of the former Yugoslavia speaks to the fact that the Republic of Serbia is unequivocally committed to the fight against impunity for the most heinous crimes against humanity. The judicial bodies of the Republic of Serbia have shown preparedness to prosecute all suspects equally regardless of their nationality or ethnicity. To that end, the Republic of Serbia has adopted a National Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes, which had been prepared in cooperation with the European Union.
For the Republic of Serbia, prosecuting war crimes is not and cannot be a question of daily politics. Rather, it is a matter of rule of law.