Enforced disappearance of Esad Aliskovic in July 1992

12.02.2016 ( Last modified: 12.10.2016 )

In June 2010, TRIAL submitted an individual complaint to the European Court of Human Rights against Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) concerning the enforced disappearance of Esad Aliskovic which occurred in July 1992. In this case, ACT is acting on behalf of Refika Aliskovic, the wife of the victim.

On 20 July 1992, almost two months after the attack on the village of Prijidor (29-30 April 1992), the Serb army launched an attack against Rakovcani, a village located in the “Brdo” sector of the Prijedor municipality. At the time of the attack, the applicant was at home with her husband, their daughters, her brother-in-law and his wife. The two men were separated from their family and forced to join other men from the same village who had already been placed under arrest. The soldiers gave no information whatsoever to the applicant or to her sister-in-law concerning the reasons for arresting their husbands nor concerning the place where they were being held. Evidence from several witnesses given before the ICTY affirm that the men arrested in Brdo were taken to the Keraterm camp around 20-21 July 1992, and locked up in Room 3. On 24 July, the soldiers opened fire against these prisoners leaving very few survivors. An eyewitness indicated to Refika Aliskovic that on the eve of this massacre some twenty detainees, including her husband, were summoned and taken away to an unknown destination. Since then, no information has been made available as to the fate and whereabouts of Esad Aliskovic.

More than 18 years after this incident, no official, prompt, impartial, comprehensive and independent enquiry whatsoever has been undertaken by the BH authorities in order to locate, Esad Aliskovic or his mortal remains and return them to his family, nor has anyone yet been prosecuted, judged or punished for these crimes. Refika Aliskovic has taken several measures in order to obtain information concerning her husband including contact with various national authorities and institutions (notably, the Police and the Federal Commission for Disappeared Persons) and with international institutions, such as the International Commission on Missing Persons. As of today all of these initiatives have been in vain.

On 16 July 2007, the Constitutional Court of BH, ruling in an action brought by several families of victims of enforced disappearances from the Prijador region, held that BH was in violation 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 families of those disappeared. Accordingly, the Court ordered the national institutions concerned to disclose all available information on the fate and whereabouts of the missing persons, including that relating to Esad Aliskovic.

Following this decision, the office of the Republika Srpska Commission of Inquiry into Involuntary Disappearances addressed a letter to the applicant which simply stated that her husband had been added to the register of the Federal Commission for Disappeared Persons with a statement of desire on the part of the authorities to come to a resolution of the cases of missing persons. Until today’s date the applicant has received no new or additional information whatsoever from the authorities concerning her husband’s disappearance or of the measures being taken to locate the bodies of those missing. The BH authorities have therefore been remiss in implementing until now, a decision of the Constitutional Court and have provided absolutely no pertinent information either to the Court or the applicant.

Consequently, Refika Aliskovic has requested the European Court of Human Rights:

Procedure

After a preliminary examination of the admissibility of the application, on 28 September 2012 it was communicated to the Government of BiH.

In January 2013, REDRESS and the OMCT submitted to the ECHR an amicus curiae brief in relation with the present case to shed light on the link between enforced disappearance and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment as well as the relationship between the continuing nature of enforced disappearance and the content of effective remedy and reparation for relatives of those who have “been disappeared”.

In January 2013 the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted its reply, challenging the admissibility and the merits of the case. On 25 March 2013, on behalf of the applicants, TRIAL submitted its pleadings to the European Court of Human Rights challenging in detail the arguments put forward by the respondent State and highlighting a number of mistakes and contraddictions contained in its submission to the European Court. The latter transmitted a copy of TRIAL’s reply to the Government, fixing 13 May 2013 as the deadline for comments they may wish to make. On 3 June 2014 the European Court issued a decision, finding that in this case Bosnian authorities did all that could be reasonably expected given the special circumstances prevailing in the country up until 2005 and the large number of war crimes pending before local courts. The Court noted that “it is evident that not all of the direct perpetrators of the many crimes committed within the context of the ethnic cleansing of the Prijedor area have been punished”. Nevertheless, it valued the fact that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the State Court have convicted respectively 16 and 7 persons in connection with crimes committed in the area.

 

See also the Ramulic case where a loved one was also arbitrarily arrested on the same occasion

 

General Context

It is estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 persons died as a consequence of the conflict in BH during the period 1992-1995 and that between 25,000 and 30,000 were victims of enforced disappearance. As of today, between 10,000 and 13,000 people are still missing without trace.

The arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance of Esad Aliskovic, took place during the first wave of the “ethnic cleansing” operations perpetrated by the Serb army during the military attack on Prijedor and the surrounding area in the spring and summer of 1992.

To date no one has been convicted, prosecuted and punished for the enforced disappearance of Esad Aliskovic, thus fostering an overall climate of impunity. The family of Esad Aliskovic has still not received any information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved one, nor an adequate and integral redress for the harm suffered.

 

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