Yugoslavia: Treatment of individuals in Serbia who avoided call-up notices between March and June 1999 during the NATO bombing campaign (1999-2000)

For information on the peace-time penalties for draft evasion under the terms of Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, please consult YUG32914.E of 13 October 1999. However, according to War Resisters International (WRI), "art. 226 prescribes that penalties under 214 are to be substantially increased when the offence is committed in wartime" (Sept. 1998). According to the JURIST Network, individuals who do "not report for military duty in due time" during a state of war or state of immediate danger of war are to be "sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to ten years" (1999). Individuals who "leave the country or remain abroad in order to avoid conscription, military training or any other form of military service" during a state of war or state of immediate danger of war are to be sentenced to "prison terms ranging from five to twenty years" (ibid.).

According to an October 1999 Amnesty International report, the special war-time provisions stipulated in Article 214 entered into force on 25 March 1999, when a "state of war" was proclaimed by the Yugoslav government.

Following the cessation of hostilities in June 1999 (Mother Jones Sept.-Nov. 1999), Yugoslav authorities continued to investigate cases of state of war draft evasion (AFP 8 Nov. 1999). According to Amnesty International sources in Serbia,

neither the civil nor the military authorities there are currently making public information on the precise number and identity of imprisoned conscientious objectors, draft evaders or deserters. Trials are apparently held in closed sessions, and information about verdicts and sentences is not generally released by the courts (Oct. 1999).

However, in a 3 October report by the "Safe House" Project, a Budapest-based organization that works with Yugoslav draft evaders in Hungary, Bojan Toncic, a journalist for the Belgrade newspaper Danas, stated that "even a statement from military courts that a potential 'deserter' is not in danger does not mean that they will not face investigation soon."

Reports vary as to the number of individuals being investigated or prosecuted for draft evasion or desertion during the conflict. In its October 1999 report, Amnesty International stated that

estimates of the number of such cases currently before military courts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia begin at 4,000 and extend as high as 30,000. A former head of the Legal Department of the Yugoslav Army Supreme Command put the number of cases at 23,000, according to information received by Amnesty International in July. The Montenegrin Helsinki Committee has estimated that proceedings have been brought against 14,000 individuals in that republic alone. According to a press report from July, Colonel Ratko Korlat, President of the Belgrade Military Court, has stated that his court is dealing with 2,400 cases - with an additional 1,900 cases under investigation

According to an 8 November 1999 report by AFP, up to 25,000 individuals throughout Yugoslavia had been accused or placed under investigation for draft evasion, of whom 14,000 to 16,000 were Montenegrins. However, Montenegrin authorities have "promised citizens would not suffer punishment for refusing military service" (ibid.). According to AFP, the Montenegrin government has proposed a draft law that would grant amnesty to those who had refused to perform their military service between 15 March and 30 June 1999 (ibid.). No additional information on the Montenegrin government's proposed amnesty law could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

In a 3 October 1999 report, the "Safe House" Project, citing Yugoslav non-governmental organizations, estimated that between 23,000 and 27,000 draft evasion cases were under investigation, with the largest number of cases being opened in Montenegro and southern Serbia, "where there was a massive mobilization."

 Little information on the sentencing of convicted draft evaders could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, according to Amnesty International,

At least several hundred conscientious objectors, draft evaders and deserters are already said to have been imprisoned in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - most of them serving a sentence of at least five years' imprisonment. Many of the imprisoned conscientious objectors, draft evaders, and deserters are reportedly held in prisons at Zabela-Pozarevac, Sremska Mitrovica, and Nis (October 1999).

The Research Directorate was unable to corroborate this information with other documentary or non-documentary sources.

According to a September-October 1999 report by Mother Jones, an American current affairs magazine, a coalition of 47 non-governmental organizations, based in Yugoslavia and abroad, had signed a petition in June 1999 "demanding amnesty for draft evaders, an action that generated no response from the government." The most recent "Safe House" Project report, published on 12 December 1999, stated that there "hasn't been any change in the prospect of an amnesty."

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 8 November 1999. "Up to 16,000 Face Draft-Dodging Action in Montenegro." (NEXIS).

Amnesty International. October 1999. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: The Forgotten Resisters: The Plight of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service After the Conflict in Kosovo. (AI Index: EUR 70/111/99). [Accessed 24 Dec. 1999]

JURIST Network. 1999. Legal Analysis of Specific Regulations Regarding the Obligations of  Army Conscripts in a State of War or in a State of Immediate Danger of War. [Accessed 4 Jan. 2000]

Mother Jones. September/October 1999. Mark Schapiro. "Serbia's Lost Generation." [Accessed 30 Dec. 1999]

"Safe House" Project. 12 December 1999. "Safe House" Project Report. [Accessed 24 Dec. 1999]

_____. 3 October 1999. "Safe House" Project Report on Perspectives of the Amnesty Law in Yugoslavia. [Accessed 31 Dec. 1999]

War Resisters' International [London]. September 1998. Bart Horeman and Marc Stolwijk. Refusing to Bear Arms: A World Survey of Conscription and Conscientious Objection to Military Service. London: War Resisters International.

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases.

World News Connection (WNC)

Unsuccessful attempts to contact three oral sources.

Internet site including:

Amnesty International.

Balkans Human Rights Web Pages.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Center for Documentation and Information in Europe.

Central Europe Online.

Committee for Peace in the Balkans.

Council of Europe.

European Bureau for Conscientious Objection.

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.

Human Rights Watch.

International Crisis Group (ICG)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

War Resisters International.