A Month After Meeting with Bogunić: Silence on Kajganić, Indictments Still Pending

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

A month has passed since the meeting that President Sanin Bogunić, the head of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held with representatives of victims' associations.

The reason was clear: deep dissatisfaction with the work of Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić, primarily regarding the prosecution of war crimes, but also information that a case had already been formed before the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office based on a complaint by state prosecutor Izet Odobašić. A month later, silence.

In the meantime, global issues have occupied public space. The escalation in the Middle East, the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran, threats and responses, all of this has pushed aside the issues that have burdened Bosnian society for years.

And it is precisely in such moments that domestic institutions breathe the easiest. Without pressure, without the obligation to explain why justice is delayed.

Because the Kajganić case is not a personal matter. It is a matter of attitude towards war crimes, towards victims, towards responsibility. It is a question of why the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet filed an indictment for the siege of Sarajevo – the longest siege of a capital city in modern European history. For months, through compliant media, we have heard that the indictment is "in the final stage," that it is "a matter of days," but that day never seems to dawn.

However, indictments are duly filed against members of the Army of RBiH and members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The courtrooms are full of them, and they are prosecuted because they defended themselves, and ultimately, defended themselves.

In parallel, information leaked to the public that prosecutor Odobašić informed the Permanent Commission for the Efficiency and Quality of Prosecutor's Offices at the HJPC about Kajganić's actions, who, according to reports, prohibited the sending of an indictment for crimes in Sanski Most and Manjača to the BiH Court for confirmation.

The indictment, as stated, was filed against several individuals, including one of Kajganić's former teachers from the police high school and a professor at the police academy.

This is a serious conflict of interest. The decision to halt the indictment, without a clear and publicly explained reason, casts an additional shadow on the already shaken trust in the work of the Prosecutor's Office. With the sloppy work of the HJPC, we have almost reached rock bottom.

The fact that a case in the statistical annual report of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH for last year was not reported as completed, even though an indictment had been filed, is particularly concerning.

Statistics, which should be a cold and precise indicator of work, thus become a space for manipulating the perception of efficiency. In the whole story, victims are once again left aside. They do not have the luxury of forgetting. Three days are not enough for them. Their wounds have lasted for three decades. And the suffering of members of the Army of RBiH who are defending themselves before the BiH Court exceeds the limits of normality.

Therefore, the question is no longer just what Kajganić is doing. The question is what the HJPC is doing. Will the case in the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office remain just another administrative footnote, or will the public receive a clear answer: is there responsibility for eventual omissions, obstructions, or conflicts of interest?

Because without an answer, without transparency, and without concrete actions, everything will truly remain within the old Bosnian-Herzegovinian matrix of "the wolf ate the sheep." And, here the heroes of the month have also fallen silent!