SERBIAN WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR WANTS MORE REGIONAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000379

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KWAC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIAN WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR WANTS MORE REGIONAL
COOPERATION

REF: 08 BELGRADE 1156

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told the
Ambassador on April 27 that there is good cooperation with Croatia
and Montenegro, but he would like more cooperation with others --
particularly Bosnia -- in order to solve and prosecute war crimes
cases more effectively. End Summary.

Good Cooperation with Croatia and Montenegro
--------------


2. (SBU) War Crimes Prosecutor Vukcevic told the Ambassador on April
27 that cooperation in the region is very important to his work.
Vukcevic said that under Serbian law, Serbia had jurisdiction to
prosecute any war crimes that had occurred anywhere in the former
Yugoslavia, but each country, including Serbia, tended to prosecute
only those individuals located on its soil, largely because of
governments' unwillingness to extradite their citizens to face
prosecution elsewhere. Thanks to formal transfer of evidence
agreements with Croatia and Montenegro, Vukcevic had been able to
receive from those countries sufficient evidence to prosecute dozens
of cases against individuals located in Serbia for war crimes.
Vukcevic cited the Slunj case as an excellent example of cooperation
among the 22 cases he had prosecuted with evidence from Croatia.
(Note: In the Slunj case, a Serbian court convicted Serb
paramilitary member Zdravko Pasic and sentenced him to eight years
imprisonment in 2008 for shooting a Croatian doctor to death after
luring him away from the Slunj hospital, on the pretext that victims
needed his care.)


3. (SBU) In addition to Croatia and Montenegro, Vukcevic said there
was some cooperation with other organizations in the region. For
example, NATO in Bosnia had provided information useful for the hunt
for International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
indictee Ratko Mladic. He was also discussing the organ trafficking
case with EULEX, despite some opposition from Foreign Minister
Jeremic, but with the support of President Tadic (reftel).

More Cooperation Needed, Especially with Bosnia
-------------- --


4. (SBU) Serbia needed a similar transfer of evidence agreement with
Bosnia, however, according to Vukcevic and his staff. War Crimes
Prosecutor's Office spokesman Bruno Vekaric said there were
currently several alleged perpetrators of crimes in Bosnia who were
hiding in Serbia. Bosnia could not prosecute them because they were
in Serbia, and Serbia could not prosecute them because Vukcevic did
not have the evidence. Vukcevic said war crimes cases in Bosnia
were difficult because the Bosniaks considered all acts committed by
fellow Muslims to have been self-defense, and therefore no Bosniaks
were ever indicted. In response to this, the Bosnian Serb
government in Republika Srpska refused to send evidence it gathered
to Sarajevo and instead sent information directly to Belgrade,
angering Bosnia's central government.


5. (SBU) To resolve the problem with Bosnia, Vukcevic had invited
Bosnia's Chief Prosecutor and Deputy Chief Prosecutor to Belgrade to
discuss how to proceed. Vukcevic said he had also asked ICTY Chief
Prosecutor Serge Brammertz and the European Commission for
assistance in convincing Bosnia that a formal agreement could help.
Vukcevic asked that the USG do what it could to facilitate an
agreement. The Ambassador responded that regional cooperation was a
USG priority and he would pass on Vukcevic's examples of how such an
agreement could help.

Cooperation within Serbian Government
--------------


6. (SBU) Vukcevic also spoke about his relationship with the
Interior Ministry. He said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic was
surprisingly good to work with compared to previous ministers and
was one of the best ministers in the cabinet. Dacic had intervened
in a dispute with police in Leskovac who had threatened a mass
protest against the arrest of police officers for alleged war
crimes. Vukcevic said Dacic had tried to calm the situation without
pressuring Vukcevic to back off. At the same time, Vukcevic said he
needed more support from Dacic for the special War Crimes Police
Unit, which did not attract the best police officers. Vukcevic
wanted more direct control over the unit and sought the extra war
crimes pay the unit's officers should be receiving, which would
attract better personnel.


BELGRADE 00000379 002 OF 002



7. (SBU) Vukcevic said that prosecuting security personnel was
challenging because most would not testify against fellow officers.
For example, Vukcevic had solved to a large extent the Bytyqi
brothers case, but he needed officers to testify against some of
those he believed were involved. There were also 10 cases against
security personnel for war crimes in Kosovo that he had prepared,
but he needed Dacic's support to choose the right timing and
approach and to encourage officers to testify. Vukcevic wanted to
work with Dacic in these cases to avoid possible police protests
that could serve as a springboard for greater social unrest during
the economic crisis.

Comment
--------------


8. (SBU) Vukcevic is well respected for examining all evidence and
leads, regardless of the ethnicity or nationality of the
perpetrators or the victims, and he and his staff have come under
personal attack for their efforts. His desire to increase regional
cooperation in an effort to uncover the truth, even if that search
reveals Serbian perpetrators, is encouraging. We are pleased to see
that despite internal wrangling over concrete cooperation with
EULEX, he is engaging EULEX in practical ways. End Comment.

MUNTER