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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal >> BN (War Crimes, Ethnic Serb, Fair Trial) Croatia CG [2002] UKIAT 05750 (11 December 2002) URL: https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIAT/2002/05750.html Cite as: [2002] UKIAT 05750, [2002] UKIAT 5750 |
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BN (War Crimes – Ethnic Serb – Fair Trial) Croatia CG [2002] UKIAT 05750
CC19224-2000
Date of hearing: 5 December 2002
Date Determination notified: 11 December 2002
BN | APPELLANT |
and | |
Secretary of State for the Home Department | RESPONDENT |
BN (War Crimes – Ethnic Serb – Fair Trial) Croatia CG [2002] UKIAT 05750
Date of Hearing: 5 December 2002
Date Determination notified:
....11 December 2002........................
Between:
APPELLANT
RESPONDENT
"Collecting documents pertinent to the pre-war, war and post-war property and sufferings of Serbs on the territory of the then Republic of Serbian Krajina and of all citizens of the then Republic of Croatia;
To exhibit, publish and publicise findings of these document searches to the public;
To prepare and disseminate evidence to national and international institutions that portrays a different 'truth' regarding events to the territory of the former Socialist Republic of Croatia, and to initiate court proceedings against perpetrators of crimes committed against humanity and the international law;
To unearth information pertinent to destinies of all Krajina residents who failed to flee Krajina in May and August 1995 and who are either dead or alive;
To co-operate with the Commissions for the exchange of prisoners of war and the hand-over of bodies of those killed on either side of the conflict, and to work with international humanitarian organisations in order to release all prisoners of war and hand over the bodies of those killed to their families as soon as possible;
To provide legal aid to former Krajina residents, including compensation for physical and emotional suffering and the damaged and destroyed property."
The website also contains a list of publications of Veritas up to February 2002 and a note of projected publications. Amongst the projected publications are what is described as "A book of Croat crimes against the Serbs in 1990 to 1995 war" in five volumes. There is also to be a video cassette on the same topic. The website notes that "So far, Veritas has prepared some twenty files regarding crimes against the Serbs". They are then specified. And the note continues, "Most of these files have been forwarded to the Hague Tribunal".
"From May until the end of October 2002, there were 18 new arrests for war crimes (15 Serbs, 3 Croats), involving 10 Serb returnees and 8 long-term residents (5 Serbs and 3 Croats). [Of 18 persons arrested since May, 7 have subsequently been released as a result of charges being dropped or courts allowed persons to defend themselves from freedom.] Twenty Serbs and one Bosniak have been convicted since early May, while 5 Croats were acquitted. While statistics about the outcome of prosecutions are not necessarily probative, disparities can indicate a different weighing of the evidence and guilt of defendants, or may simply result from the higher number of proceedings initiated against Serbs. [The Mission is currently monitoring 59 cases involving Serb defendants, 11 cases involving Croat defendants and 1 case involving a Bosniak defendant. Of the 59 cases (including in absentia cases) against Serbs (involving 330 persons), 67 percent involve one defendant whereas 33 percent involve groups of defendants. Half of the cases against Serbs are in the Danube Region. Of the 11 cases (4 individual and 7 group cases) against Croats (involving 34 persons), the majority (6 of 11) are in the Knin area in Southern Croatia.]"
In that quotation, the parts which we have inserted in square brackets derive from the footnotes to the report.
"However, I do know that all of the arrested were subsequently released and that the proceedings were never completed ie no person was ever convicted of committing that crime. Following his repatriation, M was kept in a Croatian prison and after fresh proceedings were organised, he was released from prison. I assume that he must have provided evidence to the court that he was nowhere in the vicinity of the crime scene at the time it took place, and that was the reason he was released from detention."
We see no basis at all in the evidence before us to suggest that if the Appellant were to be accused of a war crime, he could not properly defend himself on precisely the same basis. Mr Mullins acknowledged to us that there is nothing to suggest that the Appellant was in the vicinity of the commission of a war crime at any time. For those reasons, we reject the submissions based on the possibility of prosecution for war crimes.
"9. I visited my family home for the second time in January 1999 to see if there was any possibility of being able to return there. The situation was much the same, save that three elderly women were now living in the village, in the ruins of their former homes.
10. My mother has since returned to the village, she went there in May 1999 and she is living in the kitchen part of our former home, which has been made habitable. My mother could not bear to live as a refugee any longer and wanted to die in her own home and on her land.
11. There are no young people returning to Croatia. To this day, there are only a few elderly women living in my home village. My mother informs me that they do have electricity for the past year. There is still no school, doctor or bus service. It would be physically impossible for my family and I to live there."
"According to the most recent official data, 96,534 minority returns have been registered to Croatia since the end of the armed conflict [that is to say, 1995]; 68,154 returned from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 5,716 fromBosnia and Herzegovina, while 22,668 were regarded as internally displaced persons from the Danube Region. However, for personal and objective reasons, many individuals return only to settle their affairs and sell their properties prior to returning to their countries of asylum. Others wish to remain, but cannot because their properties remain damaged, destroyed or occupied, or they do not receive redress for terminated occupancy/tenancy rights."
C M G OCKELTON
DEPUTY PRESIDENT