by Slobodan DURMANOVIC
He even added that he would assist them, if they wish to approach the Human Rights Commission of the B-H Constitutional Court, claiming that he had already talked to some of them!? While Ashdown so eloquently explained his unprecedented offer, new Prime Minister of Srpska, Pero Bukejlovic stood next to him, partly shocked and partly surprised, forgetting to point out to his collocutor, when his turn came, that more than 100 families of Sarajevo Serbs had approached the mentioned commission for Human Rights a year ago!? Bukejlovic only said that he "expected" that Ashdown would set up the same type of commission he set up for Srebrenica and - that was all. Prime Minister Pero, as he said, thought it was pity they had not had a chance to discuss the economy, and, you know, whatever puts bread on the table...
Ignored Complaints: After seeing on TV and reading in the media about such outcome of the first Banja Luka "summit" Ashdown-Bukejlovic, the authorized representative of families that have submitted complaints to the B-H Constitutional Court Slavko Jovicic was more than outraged. "I am not so angry with Prime Minister Bukejlovic, as he has just taken office and probably does not know much about that," Jovicic says with a doze of irony.
However, it should be expected from Ashdown, Jovicic added, to be better informed as the families represented by Jovicic have so far written to Ashdown five times with identical requests. "Consequently, his statement that he would support families of victims if they come forward with requests to learn more about the fate of their loved ones, currently listed as missing" sounds highly hypocritical. Further, it is not true that he has seen and talked to any of the families that have submitted complaints to the B-H Constitutional Court," Jovicic claims.
Jovicic says that the Srpska authorities also share the blame in this case. Neither the previous nor this government of Srpska has shown any interest in assisting the plaintiffs represented by him. "They did not know anything about this case. Several individual complaints have been filed with B-H Constitutional Court as early as 1999, but were dismissed because of procedural mistakes, so that the city organizations of the Association of Camp Inmates of Srpska and the Association of Families of Missing Persons in Eastern Sarajevo then decided to do everything necessary to make sure these complaints are considered by the B-H constitutional Court," Jovicic explains. The first 47 complaints of families of Sarajevo Serbs have been submitted to the Human Rights Commission of the B-H Constitutional Court on February 24, 2004, and three months later another 63 complaints were submitted by persons whose family members had disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Sarajevo between May 1992 and the signing of the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Complaints demand that the B-H Constitutional Court instruct the Federation B-H government to finally explain under which circumstances their loved ones disappeared or were killed and to pay $3 million for suffered non-material damages.
"Now the key issue is whether the B-H Constitutional Court will finally start to consider our complaints, as it is totally obvious that its verdicts will be in our favor. Verdicts in our favor are unavoidable as the complaints clearly demonstrate that norms of protection of human rights, both of the victims and their families have been violated, and that families until today have no information about what had happened with their loved ones. Let me remind you that ‘Mothers of Srebrenica' based on 43 individual complaints fairly quickly got a verdict in their favor," Jovicic believes.
According to Jovicic, only a positive reply by the B-H Constitutional Court would represent the start of the process of establishing the truth about the suffering of Serbs in Sarajevo...
Wall of Silence: "I have been looking for my mother Staka Popovic for 13 years. She went missing near Trnovo with another five elderly persons. I have been told, but do not know for sure, that they were caught, beaten, tortured and finally burned to death in a holiday home near the village of Tolsici in June 1992. Since then they've disappeared without trace, and all attempts to find my mother's remains have been unsuccessful. I've found out that Edhem Godinjak had been at the spot of the crime some ten minutes before it took place. I contacted him by phone and begged him to tell me where they had been buried; I said that I did not care who had committed the crime, but he refused to talk to me. I contacted him because I had heard previously from numerous residents of that village, some of them Bosniaks, that nothing happened in that area without his approval," Milojka Blagojevic says, visibly shaken, for Novi Reporter. Milojka today lives in Istocno [eastern] Sarajevo. Besides, Godinjak, Milojka tried to get more information by contacting her former Bosniak neighbor but again encountered a wall of silence.
"I am convinced that some of them know something, because that is a small village where they all know each other. I have been making enquiries for 13 years, but it seems no one wants to know anything. And all I want is to be able to give my mother a dignified funeral. If someone reading this can help me, I would be profoundly grateful...," Milojka concludes through tears. Ms. Blagojevic is one of 110 plaintiffs who have submitted complaints to the B-H Constitutional Court.
Milomir Savic, also a resident of Istocno Sarajevo, did not have better luck in his 13-year-long search for his parents Mirko and Rosa Savic. "When we escaped on May 16, 1992, from Pofalici, my mother and father stayed behind in the house. According to what I've been told by my neighbors, they disappeared in the night between August 3 and 4, together with another 60 persons. Among them my mother was the youngest, she was 44, and my father was sick and could barely walk. The others were also elderly and weak. Since then there's been no trace of them and neighbors claim that they have no idea where they were taken. Officially, there is "no information", but through private channels in the Federation B-H Police we've learned that it is 90 ertain that they were murdered, then burned and then their corpses were left at the Buca Potok garbage dump. Neighbors, both Serbs and Bosniaks let us know when they hear of a possible location of their graves and we then attend exhumations at those locations, but their bodies have not been found so far. Then, one day I saw in one Sarajevo magazine the names of my mother and father on a list of ‘victims of the Serb aggression in the municipality of Novo Sarajevo'. I went to their editorial office and they told me that they only reprinted the list they got from the local authorities. However, officially, I was unable to obtain any information in that municipality. They only wrote the year of death, but it did not say how they knew that they were dead, where they were buried, or what had happened with their bodies!?", Milomir is bitter. He says that he has great hopes in connection with a favorable answer of the B-H Constitutional Court. "I believe that they are hiding from us what really happened. I am convinced that the Federation B-H Police could find out the truth in five days, provided, of course, that Paddy Ashdown make threats the way he did in connection with the Commission for Srebrenica. It is not a secret who was in charge of the Police and Territorial Defense...", Concludes Milomir.
Milan Mandic, president of the Association of Families of Missing Persons from Istocno Sarajevo also submitted a complaint to the B-H Constitutional Court. "I am looking for my father Bozo, who went missing in June 1992 from his house at 107 Lukavicka Street in Nedarici, Stari Grad municipality. He had been wounded, as a civilian, and stayed behind with my mother, hiding in an underground shelter. The house was located in no man's land and one day, by chance, 18-years-old soldier of the Army of Srpska Petar Petkovic from Derventa ended up inside the house. All of them were captured by the local Territorial Defense soldiers and taken away. My mother was first kept at prison ‘Sunce' [sun] in Dobrinja 2, and then also at ‘Viktor Bubanj'; the body of the soldier was later exhumed from a grave at the ‘Lav' cemetery, while my father has disappeared. Later, I was told that my father had been released from custody and then killed on his return home by the Muslim side. Serb Blagoje Pesic was sent to the spot to bury him, which he did. I had a photograph of the grave, but when I went there in 2000, the body was gone. I am convinced that the body was deliberately moved, but they claimed that they had been ‘cleaning the terrain'. As far as I know, investigative magistrate Ismet Hadzic and unavoidable Amor Masovic took part in that," Milan says.
All of that, he says, prompted him to abandon the idea of approaching the local authorities requesting information. "That would be absurd. For example, today there is an official who is supposed to give us that sort of information. Mirsad Kebo is the state Minister for Human Rights, and between 1992 and 1995 he was the director of the public company ‘Rad', which was in charge of the garbage dump where bodies were burnt. If he refuses to provide information, then who else can we approach in Sarajevo," Milan explains.
As all the others, he expects a favorable answer from the B-H Constitutional Court. "Only the Constitutional Court can force Kebo, Masovic and those like them to tell the truth," he explains.
Milan and other plaintiffs represent only a small subset of Sarajevo Serbs searching for family members who are listed as missing since the war. Milan Mandic admits that those who have moved abroad or to Serbia have pretty much given up. "Their trust in justice can only be recovered if the B-H Constitutional Court makes the only possible decision," Mandic concludes.