Amnesty International Report 1995 - Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hundreds of deliberate and arbitrary killings were reported, mostly committed by Bosnian Serb forces. Hundreds of prisoners of conscience were held by various parties to the conflict. Many detainees were reportedly tortured or ill-treated or made to perform forced labour in dangerous conditions. There were reports of rape and "disappearances". Muslims, Croats and Roma were expelled from the areas in which they lived by Bosnian Serb forces. Death sentences were ordered by Bosnian Serb courts. At the start of the year four different armed forces were fighting in various areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In central Bosnia and around government-held pockets in the east and west, there was continuing conflict between the largely Muslim Armija Bosne i Hercegovine (ABH), Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Vojska "Republike Srpske" (VRS), Army of the "Serbian Republic". In central Bosnia the abh and some Muslim paramilitaries were also fighting the Bosnian Croat force, the Hrvatsko Vijece Obrane (HVO), Croatian Defence Council, which was supported by elements of the Croatian Army. In the Bihaç pocket in the west, fighting continued between rebel Muslim forces, loyal to a local leader, Fikret Abdiç, and the ABH. In the second half of the year the VRS and the rebel Muslim forces in the Bihaç area received support from Croatian Serb forces, and in the southwest units of the Croatian Army fought against the VRS. The siege of Sarajevo by the VRS continued throughout the year. However, in February, following an international outcry over massacres of civilians in mortar attacks, a cease-fire was agreed between the VRS and abh and the town and surrounding area were partially demilitarized. In March an agreement was signed in Washington, the USA, by Alija Izetbegoviç, the Bosnian President, the Croatian President and representatives of the Bosnian Croats. An effective cease-fire between the abh and HVO was immediately implemented. The Washington agreement provided for the establishment of a Muslim- (or Bosniac-) Croat Federation on the territories their forces controlled. The Federal Constitution contained some important human rights guarantees and mechanisms. However, little progress was made towards implementing them. Mostar was placed under European Union (EU) administration while the Western European Union provided policing. The Croat-Muslim cease-fire brought an end to the large-scale human rights abuses which had accompanied their conflict. However, fierce fighting between the VRS on one side and abh and HVO on the other continued in other areas. Continuing international attempts to reach a peace agreement involving all sides, brokered by the UN, the EU and the so-called "Contact Group", failed. The government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) publicly withdrew its support for the Bosnian Serb forces after Radovan Karadziç and other Bosnian Serb representatives rejected a modified peace plan in July. At the end of the year partial agreement had been reached between the various parties on a new cease-fire and the reopening of negotiations for a political settlement. The UN Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) continued to protect humanitarian aid. However, criticism mounted because of its ineffectiveness in its other role of protecting the UN-designated "safe areas", in particular the areas around Gorazde, Sarajevo and Bihaç. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) aircraft carried out a small number of air attacks in support of the "safe areas". UN personnel were harassed, detained and used as "human shields", mainly by the VRS. All sides accused the others of breaches of international humanitarian law. Monitoring and verification of abuses by international observers were frequently difficult and witnesses were often reluctant to speak for fear of reprisals. In November the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued its first indictment. A Bosnian Serb camp commander was accused of grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, relating to the protection of civilians in time of war. He was believed to be in Bosnian Serb-controlled territory and was not in custody. The tribunal also requested that the German Government hand over another Bosnian Serb soldier, detained on suspicion of committing similar acts. VRS forces deliberately targeted civilians with artillery, mortar bombs and sniper fire. For example, in February nine people were killed when the VRS fired three mortar bombs on a queue for humanitarian aid in Sarajevo. The VRS was also believed to have been responsible for a bomb which fell on a Sarajevo market the following day killing 68 people and wounding 200. The hospital and other non-military targets were also reportedly attacked by the VRS during their advance on Gora€de in April. Despite the February cease-fire and a sniping ban, VRS sniper attacks on civilians continued in Sarajevo. For example, in one incident one person was killed and 19 injured when a tram was hit by sniper fire in October. The HVO and abh also targeted civilians, although much less frequently. Civilians were deliberately and arbitrarily killed in towns outside the war zones. Most of the victims were Muslims, Croats and Roma living in towns under VRS control. Up to 20 people were killed in Prijedor between 29 March and 1 April. The de facto Bosnian Serb authorities later announced that suspects had been arrested in connection with the killings. Muslims, Croats and foreign nationals were killed in the Mostar area, despite the Croat-Muslim cease-fire. The killings were apparently carried out by members of the HVO and Croatian paramilitaries and were reportedly not investigated fully by the Bosnian Croat authorities. Among the victims was an Iranian journalist, Saeed Hussein Navaba, who was allegedly killed by HVO soldiers or paramilitaries near Mostar in September. All sides held numerous detainees. Many were civilians who had not used or advocated violence and had been detained solely on account of their nationality or political or other beliefs. Places of detention were often not made known. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was not always informed of or given access to detainees. Regular exchanges of prisoners took place between the various parties. However, others were detained throughout the year. Approximately 3,000 detainees, both civilians and prisoners of war held in the context of the Croat-Muslim conflict at the start of the year, had been released by July. However, more people were detained during the year in other circumstances. Some arbitrary detentions were carried out in order to intimidate remaining minorities into leaving their homes; others for the purpose of extorting money or for use in prisoner exchanges. Some individuals who were prosecuted may have been prisoners of conscience. For example, a group of seven medical staff, predominantly Serbs, were detained by the Bosnian Government authorities in Sarajevo in January, reportedly for attempting to cross into Bosnian Serb-controlled territory. In April the de facto Bosnian Serb authorities detained 11 French aid workers, alleging that they had attempted to smuggle arms into Sarajevo, although there appeared to be no real foundation to the charges. A Bosnian Serb official proposed that they be exchanged for the seven Serbian medical staff held by the Bosnian Government. The aid workers were released in May after the payment of a large sum of money. The Serbian medical staff were released in a prisoner exchange in June. In July it was reported that about 100 men and 50 women, mainly Muslims, including disabled and injured people, were detained in Velika Kladußa by forces loyal to the rebel Muslim leader, Fikret Abdiç. They were held in conditions which may have amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. About 300 civilians were detained by the abh in the area. Up to 600 Muslim civilian men were held by the VRS in the Bijeljina area. They were taken into detention between July and September and many had not been released by the end of the year. Some were rounded up in Bijeljina and Janja; others had paid money to leave these towns for government-controlled areas but were nevertheless detained before crossing the front line. Relatives were not always informed of their detention and some men "disappeared". Some of the detainees were beaten or otherwise ill-treated in detention. Some detainees held by the VRS, abh or Muslim rebels were required to perform forced labour, sometimes in dangerous situations such as digging trenches on front lines. Six Muslim men were allegedly killed during shelling while digging trenches for the VRS near Teo€ak in May. The Bosnian Government authorities detained men, including possible conscientious objectors, for deserting or avoiding military service. Many of those prosecuted were Serbs. Draft resisters and deserters were also prosecuted by the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat authorities. Early in the year the authorities in Croatia and the FRY, in collaboration with the HVO and VRS respectively, mobilized men born in Bosnia-Herzegovina for service in the respective armies. As a result potential asylum-seekers were deported from the fry and possible conscientious objectors were detained in Croatia (see Croatia and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia entries). All sides held trials or initiated investigations for crimes connected with the war, including grave breaches of humanitarian law. The defendants were almost exclusively accused of crimes against individuals of the national group holding the trial. The investigations and trials may not have been carried out in conditions which allowed for a fair trial. Throughout the year there were widespread human rights abuses against Muslims, Croats and Roma remaining in Bosnian Serb-controlled areas. These included bombing or shooting at houses and attacking people in their homes and subjecting them to beatings, rape and knife attacks. The perpetrators were frequently dressed in military uniforms. Victims who sought help from civilian or military police were offered little or no protection. These abuses together with arbitrary detentions of civilians and deliberate and arbitrary killings and other pressures formed clear patterns of intimidation aimed at compelling people to leave the area. There were also abuses on a lesser scale against Muslims in Bosnian Croat-controlled areas and vice versa, as well as against Serbs in those areas. Around 6,000 Muslims were forcibly expelled from Bosnian Serb-controlled Bijeljina and Janja between July and September. Some were forcibly expelled in the middle of the night; others were effectively compelled to pay to leave as a result of systematic persecution, including the arbitrary detention of men of military age, threats and acts of violence. Some were forced to pass dangerously close to minefields or cross the front line while fighting was taking place. Information came to light of a death sentence passed in 1993 by a court in a government-controlled area. Djemal Zahiroviç was sentenced to death in September 1993 for participating in the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners in the Bosnian Serb-controlled camp in Batkoviç in 1992. None of the three known death sentences imposed in 1993 was carried out (see Amnesty International Report 1994). A Bosnian Serb military court in Banja Luka imposed a "death sentence" on a Bosnian Serb soldier, Vojislav Dimitrijeviç, after convicting him of multiple murder. Another Bosnian Serb soldier was allegedly shot for desertion in November. Throughout the year Amnesty International publicized its concerns and appealed to governmental and de facto authorities inside Bosnia-Herzegovina and to the authorities in Croatia and the fry to prevent human rights abuses, to investigate all reports of abuses and to ensure that suspected perpetrators were brought to justice. In January the organization published a report, Central and southwest Bosnia-Herzegovina: civilian population trapped in a cycle of violence, detailing abuses which had occurred in the context of the Croat-Muslim conflict between April and December 1993. In February it appealed on behalf of Dr Dejan Kafka and other medical professionals detained by the government authorities in Sarajevo. It called on the de facto Bosnian Serb authorities to investigate and prevent the recurrence of the deliberate targeting of civilians in Sarajevo. In March Amnesty International appealed for the release of possible Serbian conscientious objectors detained in Sarajevo. In April it called on the Bosnian Serb authorities to prevent deliberate targeting of civilians in Gora€de. In May it appealed for the release of 11 French aid workers held as hostages by the VRS. In June Amnesty International issued a report, Bosnia-Herzegovina: "You have no place here" – Abuses in Bosnian Serb areas, documenting abuses in Banja Luka and other towns in western Bosnia. The same month the organization appealed on behalf of two Tunisian humanitarian aid workers who had been detained by Bosnian Serb forces. It also appealed to the Bosnian Government to prevent the harassment of Serbs in government-controlled areas. In July it called on the Bosnian Serb authorities to release civilians detained around Bijeljina and to prevent other human rights abuses in the area. It also appealed for the release of civilian detainees held in Velika Kladußa by rebel Muslim forces. In September Amnesty International called on the Bosnian Serb authorities to make public the reasons for the detention in Banja Luka of five prominent Muslims who had reportedly been accused of working against the authorities. In November it appealed to the Bosnian Serb authorities to prevent human rights abuses by VRS units attacking Bihaç. In December Amnesty International published a report, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Living for the day – Forcible expulsions in Bijeljina and Janja.