{"id":188468,"date":"2022-07-07T10:45:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T09:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.recom.link\/?p=188468"},"modified":"2022-07-07T10:45:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T09:45:48","slug":"justice-elusive-after-30-years-for-klapuh-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recom.link\/en\/justice-elusive-after-30-years-for-klapuh-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Elusive after 30 Years for Klapuh Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday marked 30 years since the war crime was committed against the Klapuh family, on the territory of Montenegro by members of the\u00a0Republic of Srpska Military (VRS).\u00a0 It has been the first adjudicated war crime\u00a0in Montenegro, for which only one of the five convicted men\u00a0 ever\u00a0served the\u00a0sentence.\u00a0In order to bring to justice the remaining three,\u00a0who are still alive,\u00a0the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina should\u00a0cooperate with Montenegro.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serbia has been ignoring Montenegro’s\u00a0request for the extradition of Zoran Vukovi\u0107 for more than six years, while Bosnia and Herzegovina’s final legal position\u00a0towards Radomir Kova\u010d and Zoran Simovi\u0107 is not yet known.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hasan, Ferida, and Sena Klapuh were killed in Plu\u017eine, on 6th July\u00a01992 by five members of the “Dragan Nikoli\u0107” detachment of the Republic of Srpska Military (VRS), who were convicted in Montenegro\u00a0for that horrifying murder,\u00a0qualified as a war crime against the\u00a0civilian population back in 1996.<\/p>\n

Most of the perpetrators to this\u00a0day, 30 years following the execution of this war crime, have not served a single day of their sentences. The Republic of Serbia failed to extradite one of\u00a0them, Zoran Vukovi\u0107, to Montenegro\u00a0 for six and a half years, while\u00a0Radomir Kova\u010d and Zoran Simovi\u0107, who, like Vukovi\u0107, were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the same crime by the Montenegrin court, are most likely in\u00a0Bosnia\u00a0and Herzegovina (BiH).<\/p>\n

The High Court in Podgorica in its final judgment in 1996, convicted\u00a0Janko Janji\u0107, Radomir Kova\u010d, Zoran Simovi\u0107, and Zoran Vukovi\u0107 as\u00a0direct perpetrators of war crimes committed in the 1990s in the\u00a0territory of the former Yugoslavia. Their associate from Montenegro, Vidoje Golubovi\u0107, was given a sentence of eight months in jail due to\u00a0failure to report a criminal act and perpetrators. Only Golubovi\u0107 attended the trial and served his sentence, while the others had been\u00a0tried in absentia.<\/p>\n

The final judgment established that on the 6th of July 1992\u00a0the VRS soldiers took money from the Klapuh family to drive them from\u00a0Fo\u010da to Montenegro. When they arrived near the Mratinje dam, on the\u00a0Piva river, they stopped at the bridge, brought the father, mother,\u00a0and daughter out of the vehicle, shot them, and pushed them down the\u00a0cliff.<\/p>\n

Convicted Vidoje Golubovi\u0107 testified:\u00a0I got out of the car and,\u00a0on Janji\u0107’s order, sprinkled sand on the traces of blood originating\u00a0from Hasan and Ferida. The daughter Sena was screaming and begging not\u00a0to be killed and headed towards the dam through the tunnel.\u00a0Zoran\u00a0Simovi\u0107 and Zoran Vukovi\u0107 followed her there … a shot was heard in the\u00a0tunnel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Convicted Zoran Vukovi\u0107<\/a> was arrested in Serbia on 25 December 2015 at\u00a0the Kotroman border crossing, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued on\u00a0him\u00a0by Montenegro. His extradition was requested in\u00a0January 2016 by Montenegro. In March of the same year, the High Court in Belgrade determined that all conditions for extradition\u00a0were met. However, the Ministers of Justice of the Republic\u00a0of Serbia did not issue a decision\u00a0 on Vukovi\u0107’s extradition over six years, even after two\u00a0urgencies by the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro and\u00a0contrary to the bilateral extradition agreement\u00a0between\u00a0the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, according to which Serbia had\u00a0to decide “as soon as possible” upon Montenegro’s request and to inform it\u00a0about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Human Rights Action (HRA), after two urgencies and a complaint to the\u00a0Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia, received a response from the\u00a0Ministry of Justice of the RS in November 2020 that the extradition procedure is “still in progress”. HRA asked the Minister of\u00a0Justice of the Republic of Serbia, Maja Popovi\u0107, on four occasions –\u00a0in February, June, and October 2021, and at the beginning of July 2022\u00a0– for answers as to why the extradition procedure is taking more than six years, although the court confirmed that all conditions have been\u00a0met, but we have not received a response. If Vukovi\u0107 were extradited, he would have the right to have his trial repeated, because he was\u00a0convicted in absentia (Article 431 of the CPC of Montenegro).<\/p>\n

He\u00a0certainly had to be released from extradition detention by the end of\u00a02016, because according to the Law on International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters of the Republic of Serbia, that type of detention\u00a0can last for a maximum of one year. We don’t know where he is now.<\/p>\n

The second convict, Radomir Kova\u010d<\/a>, has been free since July of 2013 when he was released from serving a\u00a0prison sentence brought by the ICTY\u00a0for war crimes in Fo\u010da. He returned to BiH, in Fo\u010da. Montenegro first issued\u00a0a national arrest warrant for him in April 2014, and then an\u00a0international arrest warrant in February 2015. The HRA was informed by\u00a0the former Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, Vladimir\u00a0Leposavi\u0107,\u00a0in February 2021 that the Ministry of Justice of\u00a0Montenegro only in December sent a request to the Ministry of Justice\u00a0of BiH asking BiH to take over the serving of the prison sentence for\u00a0Kova\u010d.<\/p>\n

However, in April 2021, the Court of BiH refused to execute\u00a0the judgment concerning him, because the bilateral Agreement on the\u00a0Mutual Enforcement of Court Decisions in Criminal Matters between BiH\u00a0and Montenegro stipulates that enforcement will not be undertaken when\u00a0the court decision (the enforcement of which is requested) was made in the absence of the convicted person.<\/p>\n

Recently, in a letter to the new Minister of Justice, Marko Kova\u010d, HRA proposed to the minister to transfer\u00a0criminal prosecution of the convicted perpetrators of this crime\u00a0to BiH, to prevent them from enjoying impunity for the\u00a0committed war crime.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In relation to the third convict, Zoran Simovi\u0107, Montenegro also issued an international arrest warrant. The Police Administration of Montenegro has determined that he had a registered residence in BiH but declared unknown his current location.<\/p>\n

The fourth convict, Janko Janji\u0107, known as “Tuta”, committed suicide in 2000 when SFOR attempted to arrest him based on the ICTY’s arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

The Klapuh case shows that the issue of transitional justice for victims of war crimes is an issue that transcends the borders of one country and that international cooperation is necessary to bring the perpetrators of war crimes into the territory of the former Yugoslavia to justice. We expect the Government of Montenegro to insist that Serbia provide an answer why is she preventing the extradition of Zoran Vukovi\u0107, who has been convicted of war crimes against the Klapuh family, for six and a half years. We also expect the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro to take new steps toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ensure that both Radomir Kova\u010d and Zoran Simovi\u0107 are found and brought to justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Human Rights Action, together with the Center for Women’s and Peace Education ANIMA, on the occasion of the National Day on July 14, will lay flowers on the Obrad Cicmia bridge in Plu\u017eine and pay tribute to the victims, on the course of\u00a0visiting of war crimes sites.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the HRA published “Against Oblivion”,<\/a> a publication collecting testimonies of witnesses in war crimes trials. In it, you can also read the testimonies of witnesses to the crime against the Klapuh family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Podgorica, 7 July 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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