22/06/2010 Session
Strasbourg, 22.06.2010 – “Improving the protection of witnesses is essential for the success of the work of justice and a key means of achieving reconciliation in the Balkans,” said Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD). In his report adopted yesterday by the PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Mr Gardetto assesses the effectiveness of the protection and support programmes for witnesses to the war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia in proceedings at national level (in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo*) and international level, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
“The systems currently in place do not always provide adequate protection to the witnesses giving evidence in war crimes cases in national courts,” the rapporteur said. He stressed that that “the consequences are sometimes tragic”, referring in his report to people who had been murdered in Kosovo just as they were about to give evidence, the threats to and intimidation of witnesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the disclosure of the identity of protected witnesses in Croatia and Serbia. “It is urgent to protect witnesses since valuable testimonies – and with them a part of the truth – could be lost forever”, he concluded. Mr Gardetto’s report is due to be debated at a forthcoming session.
*All references to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.