FORGOTTEN PRIORITIES: Why Prosecuting Members of the Army of RBiH Comes Before Justice for Biljani and Sarajevo?

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

We have entered 2025 without an indictment for war crimes against civilians in Biljani near Ključ. Milanko Kajganić, Chief Prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, has been saying since his appointment that an indictment is imminent. It is expected any moment now. And this has been the case since 2022, since his appointment, he has been telling the victims' families and associations.

However, prosecutors have not increased their workload on this case. They did so with the indictment against Fikret Prevljak. He had previously arrived from Turkey and was immediately arrested at the airport.

Prosecutors have not worked on their workload for the approximately 10,000 Sarajevans killed by shelling and sniping either. There are no indictments for that.

Prosecutors simply find various excuses regarding war crime indictments, but when everything is summed up, it appears that certain prosecutors are working exclusively for the Serbian side, and not for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Specifically, regarding the crime in Biljani, it should be noted that the attack on this village took place on July 10, 1992, and was led by the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in cooperation with reserve and active police officers from the Sanica Police Department.

About 260 Bosniak civilians, residents of the village of Biljani, were killed. Among the killed were six children. The oldest victim was 85-year-old Bećo Ćehić, while the youngest victim was the four-month-old baby Amila Džaferagić.

Although the testimonies of survivors have revealed the context of the massacre in Biljani, Marko Samardžija remains the only person convicted for this crime! On the other hand, for example, in Dobrovoljačka street, we have more indictees than killed!? But, for the Prosecutor's Office, that was a priority case, just like the Jošanica case, and now Prevljak.

Atif Dudaković has been dragged through the courts for a long time, just like Ramiz Dreković was. Apparently, Biljani, where 260 people were killed, is not a priority!
For years, UDIK has been appealing to the BiH Prosecutor's Office and all other competent institutions to speed up the indictment process so that the perpetrators can be prosecuted and the victims can finally find peace.

None of that has yielded results. On the contrary, we are receiving indictments against members of the Army of RBiH, commanders, the military and police leadership of the Republic of BiH, as well as civilian leadership (Ejup Ganić and others), while prosecutors find excuses.
Thus, Detektor publishes the statement of Ivan Matešić, Head of the War Crimes Department of the BiH Prosecutor's Office.

“One must be honest and say whether all this can be faster. Both from our side and from the other side. Can it be faster than the authorities, could some conditions have been created, can it be allowed for a certain number of prosecutors to be hired, to finish this story. All of that is possible,” said Matešić.

And one must certainly be honest and write that a report was filed with the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office a long time ago, which is not surprising given everything the media has written about Matešić and his conduct in and out of the courtroom.
We remind you that Matešić was already before the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office where he was prosecuted for photos with former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, now synonymous with corruption scandals in Croatia.

The photo was taken in 2018 in Russia, during the Football World Cup.

In addition, we have already written about the ways in which prosecutor Matešić “arrives at the truth”. We remind you that one of Matešić's key witnesses in the Križančevo Selo case signed a statement as a public document related to another case of a similar nature, in which he directly accuses prosecutor Matešić of promising to repay his loan and pressuring him to give false statements.

But, the HJPC is not interested in that either, apparently. Just like Matešić himself, he wants to hire prosecutors because they can't handle everything (!?), which might be true, because fabricated indictments are often more complicated to prepare than to act lawfully.
Because, the State Court has convicted 46 people to a total of 433 and a half years in prison, while as many as 35 people have been acquitted of war crimes charges since the beginning of the year.

And the trend of decreasing indictments for priority cases, which certainly include Biljani, is worrying, while the increase in indictments against members of the Army of RBiH is alarming.

We have never fully learned the truth about the cases handed over by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the now-iconic List A, which does not include the cases that the prosecutors of the BiH Prosecutor's Office are working on.

Unequal access to justice is a serious problem. It is already a fact that in cases where the victims are of Bosniak ethnicity, the BiH Prosecutor's Office does not show the same seriousness in investigations and indictments as in the case of other crimes.

Therefore, someone will eventually have to answer!