SECRETARIAT / SECRÉTARIAT SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRÉTARIAT DU COMITÉ DES MINISTRES Contact: John Darcy Tel: 03 88 41 31 56 Date: 15/05/2019 DH-DD(2019)546 Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Meeting: 1348th meeting (June 2019) (DH) Communication from a NGO (Human Rights House Zagreb and Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past) and response from the Croatian authorities (14/05/2019) in the SKENDZIC AND KRZNARIC group of cases v. Croatia (Application No. 16212/08) Information made available under Rules 9.2 and 9.6 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. * * * * * * * * * * * Document distribué sous la seule responsabilité de son auteur, sans préjuger de la position juridique ou politique du Comité des Ministres. Réunion : 1348e réunion (juin 2019) (DH) Communication d’une ONG (Human Rights House Zagreb and Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past) et réponse des autorités croates (14/05/2019) dans le groupe d’affaires SKENDZIC ET KRZNARIC c. Croatie (requête n° 16212/08) (anglais uniquement). Informations mises à disposition en vertu des Règles 9.2 et 9.6 des Règles du Comité des Ministres pour la surveillance de l’exécution des arrêts et des termes des règlements amiables. DH-DD(2019)546: Reply from Croatia to a communication from a NGO. Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. HUMAN Selska œsta 112 a/c, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia RIGHTS tel/ fax: +385 1 551 33 95 HOUSE kontaktOkucalJudskihprava.hr n ZAGREB www.kucaUud5l<ihprava.hr Zagreb, May 6, 2019 COUNCIL OF EUROPE DEPARTMENT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS STRASBOURG, FRANCE Rule 9.2 Communication concerning Skendzié group of cases v. Croatia from Human Rights House Zagreb and Documenta -Center for Dealing with the Past 1. The aim of this submission is to update the Committee of Ministers concerning the long-term lack of full and effective implementation of general measures in the Skendzié group of cases. 2. The submission is prepared by Human Rights House Zagreb in cooperation with Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past, both Croatian civil society organisations. Human Rights House Zagreb1 is a human rights watch-dog and advocacy organization founded in 2008 as a network of civil society organizations with the goal to protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms through research, monitoring, public advocacy, and education. Documenta's2 mission is to encourage the process of dealing with the past in Croatia, to document and investigate war, wartime and postwar events and work with civil society organizations, governmental institutions, and similar center aboard. Background 3. The Skendi:ié group of cases is erevealed the problem of ineffective investigations into war crimes in Croatia on account of inexplicable delays and shortcomings in taking actions aimed at collecting the evidence. 'http://www.kucalJu<l_~k1_t1_Q_rava.hr/en( 2 hUp§:/lwww.dorumerita.hr/en/homo.html DH-DD(2019)546: Reply from Croatia to a communication from a NGO. Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. HUMAN RIGKT'S KOUH DOCUMENTA 0 D CENTAR 7 A SUOCAVANJE S PRO~LOStU Problems with administrative and the Government's practice 4. The administrative and the Government's practice concerning m1ssmg persans, locating burial sites of victims and identifying exhumed remains ineffective and conducive to climate of impunity for war crimes. The process of identifying missing persons is not fast enough and cannot be considered satisfactory. ln 2018, the remains of 30 persans were exhumed and identification of 47 remains was brought to an end. According to the Ministry of Croatian Veterans' Affairs, on 31 December 2018 the official records counted 1 497 persons as missing. ln addition to that, 414 requests were lodged by families for search for the remains of their dead next-of-kins for which there is no known place of burial, which, in total makes 1 911 unresolved missing persans cases, of which 900 are 3 missing persons of Serb ethnicity . 5. The work of the Office for the Detained and Missing Persans is still largely not transparent since the names of the persans are not published after the identification has been carried out. This practice denies information to the public on identity of persons whose remains have been identified and on locations where victims have been exhumed, which has a paramount importance for clarification of 1990s war events and is therefore of a great public interest. 6. The regional cooperation between competent Croatian and Serbian authorities on exhumation and identification of mortal remains is insufficient and inadequate. As an illustration of this situation, members of the Missing Persons Commission of the Republic of Serbia were not invited to attend the identification of Serb victims conducted on 5 February 2019 at the KBC Salata in Zagreb with the explanation that the relatives of the identified persans reside in the territory of the Republic of Croatia and therefore identification has no regional character. Such conduct by the Croatian authorities prevented information sharing with the competent institutions and associations of families of missing persans from the Republic of Serbia. ln the same vein, on 11 November 2018 the Serbian Minister of Justice stated before the UN Security Council that in 24 cases the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia received no response from the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Croatia on requests for evidence and information, despite the terms of the cooperation agreement. 4 7. Similar comments have recently been made by IRMCT (the abbreviation stands for International Residual Mechanism for Criminat Tribunals) Chief Prosecutor concerning the Jack of cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina. He noted that in one case a request for assistance remained unanswered by the Croatian Ministry of Justice after more than two years. and two other cases still have not been processed more than two years after the files were transferred to Croatia. The Croatian State Attorney's Office declined the offer of the Chief Prosecutor Brammertz to host a meeting between Bosnian and Croatian prosecutors to resolve these issues. The Chief Prosecutor therefore 1 Ombudswoman·s 2018 Annual Repon, p. 163-164, availablo at: http:l/o,nbuds1nan.hr/Mcomponen11jdo-.vn10ad"send/84-2018/1~;14_-lzyif!!ce­ pucke-~r;:,,-ob<Mite~ice-za-.2018-qtoo,nu • UN Security Council 6416th meeting, 11 Oecember 2018, S/PV.6416, p. 23 available at: http://www.un.orglen/ga/search/v,ew_ doc.asp?symbol=S/PV .6416 DH-DD(2019)546: Reply from Croatia to a communication from a NGO. Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. HUMAN ltlGHTS HOUSI DOCUMENTA n D CfNTAR 7A SU0CAVANJ[ S PRœLôSéU stressed he "is seriously concerned about the lack of progress and calls upon Croatian authorities to expedite the processing of these cases."5 8. ln Letter of 19 November 2018 addressed by the IRMCT President to the President of the UN Security Council, which included the IRMCT Chief Prosecutor assessment, the latter reported that "the Government of Croatia, by failing to withdraw its 2015 conclusion dlrecting its Ministry of Justice not to provide judicial cooperation in certain war crimes 6 cases, regrettably continues to interfere politically ln the justice processes" • As a result, a large and growing number of war crimes cases against former members of Croatian and Bosnian Croat forces are frozen. The conclusion has not been made publicly available. 9. ln view of the above, the IRMCT Chief Prosecutor concluded that despite his Office's direct engagement with the Croatian authorities, "very little progress has been achieved over the past three years with respect to this Croatian policy and its negative impact. The policy is having the effect of promoting impunity at the expense of the victims throughout the region, who deserve justice." The Chief Prosecutor highlighted that "no satisfactory explanations have been provided for the maintenance of this policy and indeed none could be provided, particularly by a State member of the European Union". He therefore called on the Government of Croatia to "withdraw the policy immediately and allow justice 7 process ta continue without further intereference". Overall, the IRMCT Chief Prosecutor highlighted that "significant efforts are needed to show that war crimes justice in Croatia is on the right track."8 His views are widely shared by the civil sector and victims' families alike. 1O. lt is furthermore highlighted that the official registers on war crimes victims kept by the Croatian authorities remain incoherent. For instance, Mr Milan Skendzié is still counted in the Ministry of lnterior's Register of Missing Persans while at the same time he is not counted in the Ministry of Croatian Veterans' Affairs Book of Missing Persans. The two exhumations carried out based on anonymous statements did not yield results. Witnesses of Mr Skendzié's departure from Otoëac and arrest in Gospié, where he disappeared without a trace, do not speak most likely due to fear, which is commonly observed in war crimes investigations. 11. The Act on Missing Persons during the Home/and War has not yet been passed despite the fact that the war was brought to an end more than 20 years ago.