forced eviction in November from their homes in a settlement to make room for a housing project sponsored by the city and the Ministry of Human Rights for 18 other Roma families. At this writing the authorities had failed to identify alternative housing for those facing eviction, some of whom were moved in late 2010 from another location in Mostar.
War Crimes Accountability
On May 31, 2011, Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (see Serbia chapter). Mladic made his first appearance in court in June, pleading not guilty to 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995. In October the trial member rejected a request from the prosecutor to split the charges into two trials and proceed with the Srebrenica charges first to ensure efficiency and justice for victims. The trial member concluded the request would “prejudice the accused and render the trials less manageable.”
The trial of Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, charged with many of the same crimes as Mladic, continued at the ICTY in 2011, with some delays due to disputes between his legal team and the prosecutor’s office about delayed disclosure of evidence to the defense.
In September Momcilo Perisic, former Yugoslav army chief of staff, was convicted at the ICTY of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, including involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Between September 2010 and 2011, the domestic War Crimes Chamber in Bosnia reached final verdicts in 24 cases, raising the total number of completed cases to 75.
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
The adoption of a revised strategy in 2010 to support the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) did little to arrest the declining number of such returns. According to UNHCR only 146 refugees and 177 IDPs returned to their areas of origin in the first six months of 2011. As of mid-2011, there were 113,188 registered IDPs (including about 7,000 in collective centers), according to UNHCR, with 48,583 in the Federation, 64,359in Republika Srpska, and 246in Brcko District. Impediments to return remained similar to previous years: lack of economic opportunity in Bosnia, inadequate housing, and reluctance to return to areas where residents would be an ethnic minority.
Bosnia continued to host Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians from Kosovo under temporary protected status, many of whom had lived in the country for over a decade. As of June 2011, UNHCR reported that there were 152 Kosovo Roma in Bosnia, up from previous years.
National Security and Human Rights
In June Ahmed el-Farahat, an Egyptian national arrested and detained at Lukavica immigration detention center in October 2010 under national security legislation, was deported to Egypt without criminal charges being filed against him or the opportunity to examine evidence and appeal his deportation. El-Farahat, who had gone on hunger strike earlier in the year to protest his indefinite detention, had lived in Bosnia with legal permanent resident status since the early 1990s.Five other national security suspects were detained without charge at Lukavica, including three with cases pending before the ECtHR.
In March Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe commissioner of human rights, condemned Bosnia’s failure to implement recommendations, made after his 2007 visit to the country, on improved safeguards for national security suspects, including a judicial remedy for long-term detainees at Lukavica detention center and suspending deportations for those at risk of torture or ill-treatment in the countries of return.
In February the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina began the trial of six defendants charged with the 2010 bombing of a police station in the town of Bugojno, which killed one police officer. Three of the six defendants pleaded not guilty, whil