People and Justice: Court confirmation of Serbia's participation in the aggression against BiH, partial satisfaction for victims

(Patria) - The final verdict of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts in the case against the top officials of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, is important, among other things, as judicial confirmation of Serbia's participation in the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to a statement from People and Justice.

People and Justice emphasize that this verdict judicially confirmed the fact that Serbia, including its political, military, and police leadership, directly waged war against Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of creating an ethnically pure state.

“This verdict, which confirmed the existence of a joint criminal enterprise, represents only partial satisfaction for all victims of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially for the victims from Bijeljina, Zvornik, Bosanski Šamac, Doboj, Trnovo, and Sanski Most. This is an important verdict because it will represent the fundamental fact that the political leadership of both neighboring countries, Croatia and Serbia, were part of a joint criminal enterprise and directly participated in the aggression against BiH,” the reaction of People and Justice states.

The verdict against Stanišić and Simatović, according to People and Justice, fills a dangerous gap that existed regarding the definitive judicial confirmation of Serbia's participation in the aggression against BiH.

“Unfortunately, after the failure of the revision of the genocide verdict, this verdict fills that gap by clearly holding Serbia responsible for the aggression. Regret remains for the missed opportunity for Serbia to be judicially convicted of genocide as well, and it is now clear that as early as 2017, there was evidence that, had the revision process been conducted honestly and correctly, could have led to a change in the verdict. Those who led that process remain indebted to answer why, for whose interests, they did everything to ensure that process failed? Why was this issue approached with complete irresponsibility? Why are key information still being hidden to this day? The verdict against Stanišić and Simatović only confirms that we were right when we insisted that those responsible for the failure in the revision case must be held accountable to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially all victims,” People and Justice add.

Confronting the past, based on court verdicts, is an important process for the entire Western Balkan region, People and Justice add.

“We call for court verdicts to be respected, for the denial of genocide and war crimes to stop, and for, by accepting the established facts, to jointly confront the past and continue our path towards Euro-Atlantic integration. With this verdict, the historical framework has finally been clearly set, and it has been clearly indicated which countries committed aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which political, military, and police officials were at the head of joint criminal enterprises. These are judicially established facts, and their denial will not in any way hide or change the truth,” the statement concludes.