Victims' associations wrote to Schmidt: Introduce ICTY/MICT judgments into criminal records

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide and the Association of the Movement "Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves" have for many years been seeking the introduction of judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as its successor, the Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts, into criminal records, according to a letter from the associations to High Representative Christian Schmidt.

"Unfortunately, not a single minister, nor the Council of Ministers as a whole, has ever shown interest in actually doing so. At our initiative, the President of the ICTY, Mr. Theodor Meron, submitted the ICTY judgments, which were final at the time, in 2016; however, the Ministry of Justice did nothing to have these judgments, along with other criminal judgments, included in the criminal records. Given that for almost 10 years the Council of Ministers, or rather the Ministry of Justice, has not initiated any procedure to incorporate the ICTY judgments into the criminal records, and that no one from the Council of Ministers has even responded to our latest letters, it is clear that this convocation of the Council of Ministers also has no interest in resolving the issue of ICTY judgment records," the letter stated.

"Dear Sir, considering the daily glorification of convicted war criminals, their glorification, public acknowledgment by war criminals that they would repeat their crimes, we call on you to, based on your authority, introduce ICTY/MICT judgments into criminal records.

We hope you will use your authority and support victims in their struggle," the associations stated.