Enforced disappearance of Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac in June 1992

August 2009, TRIAL submitted a communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Huso Zlatarac and Nedžad Zlatarac occurred in June 1992. TRIAL acts on behalf of Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Čardaković, wife and daughter respectively of Huso Zlatarac and mother and sister respectively of Nedžad Zlatarac.

The case

On 4 May 1992, Huso Zlatarac was arrested in Svrake (BiH) by the Serb army together with Hasiba Zlatarac and their sons Nedžad and Alma (then 14 years old) and most of the inhabitants of the same village. They were all taken to the concentration camp known as Kasarna JNA in Semizovac. A few days later, Hasiba Zlatarac, together with her daughter Alma and other women and children, were freed. Huso Zlatarac and his son Nedžad were kept prisoners and transferred to different concentration camps, where they were subjected to torture and forced labour. Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac were last seen on 16 June 1992 in the concentration camp known as “Planjina kuca”, located in the municipality of Vogosca. Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then.

More than 17 years after the events, no ex officio, prompt, impartial, thorough and independent investigation has been undertaken by BiH authorities in order to locate Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac or their remains or to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible. Mrs. Zlatarac has taken several steps to obtain information about her husband and son, through the police of Visoko and Vogosca, the State Commission for Tracing Missing Persons, the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, and the Red Cross Society of BiH. These initiatives have proved vain. Mrs. Čardaković has constantly supported her mother in the filing of complaints and in the searching activities in order to locate her father and brother. Both Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Čardaković are active members of the Association of Families of Missing People from Vogosca.

On 23 February 2006, the Constitutional Court of BiH, seized by several families of victims of enforced disappearance from Vogosca, declared a violation by BiH of the right not to be subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and the right to respect for private and family life of the relatives of disappeared persons. Accordingly, the Court ordered the relevant domestic institutions to disclose all available information on the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared people, including Huso Zlatarac and Nedžad Zlatarac. On 16 November 2006, the Constitutional Court adopted another ruling, where it declared that the Council of Ministers of BiH, the government of the Republika Srpska, the government of the Federation of BiH and the government of the Brčko District of BiH failed to enforce its previous decision. Nevertheless, Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Čardaković have not received any information about their loved ones from the mentioned institutions.

Consequently, Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Čardaković request the Human Rights Committee:

to find that Huso Zlatarac and Nedžad Zlatarac are victims of a violation of Article 2.3 (right to a remedy) in conjunction with Articles 6 (right to life), 7 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment), 9 (right to liberty and security of person), 10 (right to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person) and 16 (right to be recognized as a person before the law) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, due to the ongoing failure of BiH authorities to conduct a prompt, impartial, independent and thorough investigation on their arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance, in order to establish their fate and whereabouts, as well as to identify those responsible for these crimes and to prosecute, judge and sanction them;

to find that they are victims of a violation by BiH of Article 2.3 (right to a remedy) in conjunction with Article 7 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) of the Covenant, because of the severe mental distress and anguish caused by their loved ones’ enforced disappearance and the ongoing lack of information about the cause and circumstances of their loved ones’ disappearance as well as on the progress and results of the investigations carried out by BiH authorities;

to find that, in the case of Alma Čardaković, until 4 March 1996 (when she attained the majority), she is also victim of a violation by BiH of Article 24.1 (rights of the child) in conjunction with Articles 2.3 and 7 of the Covenant, because she was a minor when the events took place and, as such, she was entitled to the adoption of special measures of protection by the State that BiH failed to undertake;

to request BiH to order independent investigations as a matter of urgency with a view to locate Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac and, if necessary, exhume, identify, respect and return their mortal remains;

to request BiH to bring the perpetrators of the arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac before the competent civil authorities for prosecution, judgment and sanction without any further delay; and

to request BiH to ensure that Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Čardaković obtain integral reparation and prompt, fair and adequate compensation for the harm suffered.

The General Context

It is estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 persons died as a consequence of the conflict (1992-1995) in BiH and that between 25,000 and 30,000 were victims of enforced disappearance. Approximately 13,000 people remain disappeared to date.

The case of Huso Zlatarac and Nedžad Zlatarac occurred in the context of a first wave of enforced disappearances and “ethnic cleansing” operations perpetrated by the Serb army in the spring and summer of 1992.

Notwithstanding the existence of strong evidences on the identity of those responsible for the enforced disappearance of Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac and eye-witnesses of the events, to date no one has been convicted, prosecuted and sanctioned for the alleged crimes, thus fostering an overall climate of impunity. Up to this day, the families of men disappeared in Vogosca have not received any information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

The decision

In March 2013, the Human Rights Committee communicated its decision (called “views” in the UN language). The Committee held that Bosnia-Herzegovina violated Article 2.3 in conjunction with Article 6, 7 and 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with regards to all of the authors and their disappeared relatives. The Committee also found a violation of Article 24 of the Covenant with regard to Alma Čardaković.

The Committee requested Bosnia-Herzegovina to continue the efforts to establish the fate and whereabouts of Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac as required by the Missing Persons Act of 2004, to continue the efforts to bring to justice those responsible for their disappearance and to do so by 2015, as required by the National War Crimes Strategy, to abolish the obligation for family members to declare their missing relatives dead to benefit from social allowances and to ensure adequate compensation.

Moreover, the Committee insisted on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s obligation to prevent similar violations in the future and to ensure that investigations into allegations of enforced disappearances be accessible to the missing persons’ families.