NUŽDIĆ: BiH JUDICIARY MUST END SELECTIVE JUSTICE PRACTICE

BANJA LUKA, February 3 /SRNA/ – Acting Director of the Republic Research Centre of War, War Crimes, and Tracing Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić called on the BiH judiciary to end the practice of selective justice and to finally bring the court proceedings against the wartime commander of the Fifth Corps of the so-called Army of BiH Atif Dudaković, as well as all other such cases, to a conclusion - lawfully and fairly.

"In this way, after decades of waiting, it would be possible to provide the families of victims with at least a minimum of the justice that belongs to them," Nuždić told SRNA. Nuždić says he does not wish to enter into the question of whether Dudaković is fit to stand trial, as that is exclusively for doctors to determine, but he asks why it took the judiciary as many as 25 years to file an indictment and why the trial has been unjustifiably dragged out for years. He stressed that, regardless of all attempts at obstruction, the crimes committed against Serbs by members of the Fifth Corps of the so-called Army of BiH remain permanently documented by the Republika Srpska institutions, noting that one such publication is the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs. Nuždić states that a new volume of the Atlas of Crimes against Serbs, covering the year 1995, will be presented to the public during this year, emphasizing that this publication will represent yet another indisputable proof of the scale of crimes committed against Serbs. He said that justice in BiH routinely turns into a farce when Serb war victims are concerned, because trials last indefinitely, proceedings are systematically rendered meaningless, and victims and their families are humiliated. Nuždić said that this sends an unequivocal message to Serbs that the BiH judiciary has neither the will nor the intention to ensure justice for their victims. He pointed out that the Republic Centre has repeatedly warned and publicly appealed for an end to the shameful delays in judicial proceedings, as it is clear to everyone that the passage of time benefits perpetrators of crimes by allowing them to evade justice, while witnesses to their crimes die. According to him, responsibility has for years been shifted from one institution to another - the Prosecutor's Office accuses the Court, the Court responds in kind, while truth and justice remain trapped in an endless circle of institutional irresponsibility. "What has been going on for decades is not a legal process, but a deliberate avoidance of making decisions. At the same time, we are witnessing how quickly and efficiently politically motivated proceedings are concluded before these same institutions, which further exposes the double standards applied within the BiH judiciary," Nuždić emphasized.