Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2004 - Bosnia-Herzegovina
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Date:
14 April 2005
Attack on the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and threats against its president47
On 7 February 2004, Mr. Branko Todorovic, president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina (HchrBH) based in Sarajevo, received death threats on his telephone answering machine. These threats accused him of being a NATO agent and warned him that if he went into hiding his family would be targeted. This followed the publication of an article on 3 February 2004 in the Banja Luka newspaper Nezavisne Novine, in which Mr. Todorovic had accused the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Zoran Djeric, of a lack of political will in the arrest of persons suspected of war crimes. Mr. Todorovic had also denounced, in a television broadcast on the RTRS channel on 6 February 2004, the lack of result in the investigation of the aggression of Mr. Mladen Mimic, president of the Milici Citizens' Association, who had been attacked in March 2003.48
On 6 February 2004, Mr. Dragan Jerinic, editor-in-chief of Nezavisne Novine, also received death threats on his mobile phone, warning him he would be killed if he continued to publish Mr. Todorovic's writings.
On 8 February 2004, the Minister of the Interior stated that the police denied any involvement in these threats.
As at the end of 2004 investigations into these threats had produced no result.
On 26 September 2004, the office of the Helsinki Committee was burgled. Hard disks containing information on ongoing investigations were stolen together with a camera. However valuable equipment, including new computers that contained no files on the Committee's activities, was left untouched.
As at the end of 2004 the investigation into this burglary had produced no result.
On 22 November 2004, the home of Mr. Todorovic in Bijeljina was also burgled. Nothing was stolen, which leads to the theory that this was an act of intimidation. As at the end of 2004 this investigation had produced no result.
[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]
47. See Urgent Appeal BIH 001/0904/OBS 074.
48. See Annual Report 2003.
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