A long-standing obstruction of the registration of verdicts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts from The Hague (IRMCT) conducted by the Bosnian Ministry of Justice is blocking the persecution of criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, the Mothers of Srebrenica association warned on Tuesday.

“Serge Bramertz, the IRMCT prosecutor, has been warning the UN Security Council in his report for several years about the blocking of registration of final ICTY and the Mechanism's verdicts in the legal system of BiH. Blockades and obstructions are aimed at protecting the convicted war criminals and thwart the implementation of the content of verdicts in the Bosnian judicial system, and to deny the legacy of The Hague Tribunal,” said the association.

They stressed that they have been demanding ever since the UN courts in The Hague were established that final verdicts and facts are also used in the trials before the courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“With regard to this, although victim associations have been in continuity and in cooperation with state institutions, submitting to prosecutor's offices the lists of persons who participated in crimes and other incriminating acts in parallel with ICTY convicted criminals, which was the task of all prosecutors’ offices, there was no comprehensive approach and persecution,” the Mothers of Srebrenica said, singling out the lists that contain the names mentioned in the verdicts against convicted war criminals including Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

“We call on the Council of Ministers and the Justice Ministry of BiH to urgently comply with The Hague court's request and register the ICTY and IRMCT's verdicts,” the association added.