REPORT ON THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
January – December 1998

Three years after the signing of the Dayton Agreement, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) there has not been established new legal system as yet as a precondition for completion of framwork in the field of human rights and democratisation of the country. Relative to this, the requirement was only partially fufilled that corresponding laws be harmonised with the European Convention on Human Rights and international standards in that field.
On the political scene, there are still active people speaking in favour of destruction of BH. At the same time, there are not only few of them who declared themselves as followers of the Peace Agreement but trying to make relativistic the importance of some of the key stipulations of the agreement such as the realisation of the right of refugees and displaced persons to return, return and protection of property. The basis of such policy is aspiration to preserve the state of division of the country on the ethnic-religious grounds. All this is contributing to the fact that more than 800,000 of pre-war BH inhabitants are accommodated outside Bosnia and Herzegovina in about fifty countries of the world and that great number of these are not able to return to their houses. At the same time, the assimilation of the refugees from BH is in the course while the great number of people are determined to go the the immigration countries – USA, Canada, Australia. These decisions are motivated by physical, legal, economic and social insecurity in BH.
The national parties, still as dominating political factors, are trying to preserve the power by acting out of the system, blocking the democratic processes and institutions, trying to maintain the monopoly in the main media, but at the same time putting pressure over the independent mass media. The question of accountability for (un)done has not been resolved systematically. The transformation of voting body towards civic political option goes very slowly. The opposing parties do not succeed in proving themselves to be a convincing democratic alternative, the possible coalition is limited greatly due to leaders ambitions and rivalry. All this, instead of speeding up the democratic processes, forced the leaders of the international community in BH, protective by nature, to intervene on the basis of the authorization given to them in the meantime by the competent bodies for the interpretation and implementation of the Dayton Agreement.
Such an atmosphere negatively reflects on the sphere of human rights, although this issue has become an integral part of political everyday life. More and more politicians, even those ones who used to be or who are now the leaders of national ideological bodies, state human rights as priority objective. Yet however, individual rights and freedoms are still being disregarded in the institutions of the system and are being exposed daily to assaults throughout the country.

WAR CRIMES
Reaching the truth on committed crimes and victims is a very slow and difficult process. Apart from the international experts working on the exhumations of victims of the war, there are domestic commissions established on the basis of the ethnic key as well. The positive agreement was reached to perform the exhumations without applying the principle of reciprocity, thus the commissions have started working in the entire territory of BH regardless of where they are based. The cooperation among all the three sides in this field of activities have started. The provision of money resources for exhumations is a great problem.
The information about war victims, presented to the public in mass media under political control, is being placed only for the victims from their own nationality. Sarajevo’s media are the most open for the information from this field, although there is rarely information testifying on the victims of Serb nationality. The exhumations in the area of the city of Sarajevo, performed by the Commisssion from the Republic of Srpska (RS) in agreement with the local authorities, took place in the end of November. Since then, during 1998, from the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 1,700 victims were exhumed from 250 graves. The State Commission for Search of Missing Persons, the mission of which is primarily to search for murdered Bosniaks, is informing the public on its work and results most regularly and most comprehensively. Thus, the report containing the information on exhumations performed by the Commission from April 1996 to November 1998 was recently published. Within that period, about 3,500 body remains from 103 mass graves were exhumed, with 98 percent of them Bosniaks. The youngest victim was a 16-day old child. This Commission is searching for about 25,000 people, as until now 27,371 persons were reported as missing. The data of the International Committee of Red Cross speak of about 19,000 missing persons.
The institutions of the authorities do not fulfil their duties in order to find the truth on missing persons. Thus the right of the survivors to know the truth about their closest family members is being heavily violated. This has especially has a very negative effect on the refugees and displaced persons, on the process of return and overall atmosphere. It is also difficult to get the victims’s remnants when being identified. Thus it happened that the parents, Bosniaks, by the help of their neighbours, on the inter-entity boundary line, “stole” the body of their dead son and buried it in secret. They decided to undertake such a step since they could not obtain the approval to exhume the body from the local authorities and the international organisations.
The main suspects for the most severe crimes, such as genocide, have not been brough to justice as yet, although their places of residence and direction of moving are well known and for a long time have been within reach of the international peace forces. The truth is that this year the members of the special SFOR units have been more actively involved in the arresting of suspects and their delivery to the International Tribunal in the Hague. Yet however, the most responsible for the BH tragedy are still at large. With all this, the trials before the Hague Tribunal neither by number nor rank of suspects are not adequate compared to the crimes committed in BH.
The International Tribunal is faced with insufficient or of no kind cooperation of the local authorities, especially of the RS or the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). There is also inadequate engagement of the international authorities in bringing the indectees to the Tribunal, in securing financial resources and other conditions for the honest work of the Hague Tribunal. In of all this, there are doubts with the public and with legal experts caused by different relationship of the court justice towards the qualification of the circumstances in which the crimes were committed (for example, for some of them it is about the pure aggression over BH from outside, while for the others this was not aggression) and in determining the sentence for committed crimes. However, the International War Crimes Tribunal should be given full support in order to enable it to make greater and greater contribution in overcoming the (post)war trauma in BH.
The relationship towards the facts and legal assessment of war crimes in BH has been visibly politicised from inside and from outside. Political manipulations and calculations, especially from the part of the international authorities, have a substantial effect on the normalisation of the state in the country and by this on the efficiency in protection of human rights.

AUTHORITIES AND LAW
For already three years a specific war after the war is taking place in BH, war in which armed conflicts are replaced with violence and terror which are the outward form of the continuity of great nation pretensions toward and within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The hot spots of conflict and terror illustrate the aspirations of nationalists to preserve the domination zones occupied up to now. For that purpose fear is sown among the returnees and violence is exercised against the minority groups. Practically the entire RS is inaccesable for massive return of Bosniaks and Croats. Eastern Bosnia, the area in which the most massive genocide over the Bosniaks was committed, is particularly isolated and at present there are almost no Bosniaks there. The spearhead of the Croatian extremists is especially turned against Bosniaks in Herzegovina and Serbs in the area of Drvar. The Bosniak extremists are active especially in central Bosnia.
Extremists do not restrain even from committing murders. Raging of Croat “fans” in Mostar, who were celebrating the victory of national football team of the neighboring state of Croatia, lead to the death of two Bosniaks, while two more Bosniaks were killed in the territory of Herzegovina (Capljina, Livno). Three Croats, among whom two were policemen, were victims in central Bosnia (Travnik, Vitez). Two Bosniaks were killed in RS (Brcko and Kotor Varos), and two Serbs in the BH Federation (Drvar). These murders are not necessarily primarily politically motivated, but as they occur in the areas of high risk and as the proper response of the authorities is missing, these murders might be viewed in the light of ethnic context.
The Croat ultranationalists are most obstinate in the area of Stolac, where until December there were about seventy grave incidents. Mostly, the empty houses of Bosniak returnees were demolished by explosive devices, but apart from the material damage there were also injuries and cases of physical and psychological harassment. The Croat extremists are active also in central Bosnia (Vitez, Zepce).
The Bosniak extremism was directed both against Croats and Serbs in central Bosnia, including the Sarajevo Canton as well. The violence was often motivated by the utter religious intolerance. About three hundred Serb extremists, instigated by the ultranationalistic politicians, attacked and beat up the Bosniak Muslims during their prayer in mesjeed (provisional place of prayer), served after the death of their religious leader in Banja Luka. The right wing in the RS threatened even the ArchBishop of Vrhbosna, Cardinal Vinko Puljic and a group of Croat Catholics who came to attend the mess in Derventa. About a thousand Serbs blocked the road, encircling the church in which the believers, together with the Cardinal, were being kept for six hours. Explosives were planted in the church as well. On that occasion, as well as during the visit of Catholics to the village in the area of Bosanski Samac, there were people injured by stones. Churches and cemeteries of all the three religions are still being targeted throughout BH. Intolerance is greatest in the RS in which there are no mosques, while almost all the catholic churches are completely destroyed. In that entity the authorities do not allow reconstruction of religious buildings, and moreover a church is being built in the place where a mosque used to be (Brcko). Incidents with religious background multiply at the time of religious festivities. There are other forms of pressure being used as well. Radical Muslims, especially members of Active Muslim Youth, advocate religious intolerance during public events, verbally and through posters. The members of minority groups are exposed to other forms of discrimination. In the areas with Croat majority, Bosniaks, Serbs and workers of other nationality are prevented from returning to their jobs. There are particularly drastic cases in Mostar (Aluminum Combine), where all employees are Croats, and in Livno, where mainly Bosniaks are being dismissed. In relation to this, the French aluminum giant (PECHINEY) made a praiseworthy step, stopping the cooperation with Mostar Aluminum Combine because of such discrimination. In Livno, the unfair behavior towards Bosniaks was partly alleviated by returning jobs to 25 Bosniaks who worked in the municipal administration. The members of minorities and returnees are faced with blackmail and serious impediments when trying to realize their fundamental rights, especially in the RS but also elsewhere. In order to obtain the documents they have to pay several times higher fees than the members of majority people, and everything is done to discourage them in their efforts. Apart from discrimination against the members of the three most numerous peoples in places where they are minority, there is also discrimination against other ethnic groups such as Roms and “others”, this term implying those citizens of BH who do not fall in the category of the three constitutive peoples (Croats, Bosniaks and Serbs).
The political discrimination was particularly pronounced during the elections, when there were physical assaults and other kinds of harassment during the conflict of political parties within one ethnic community. Especially the Serb Radical Party (SRS) demonstrated the political bullying in the RS as well as the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) against their opposing parties from within that entity.
The members of the Bosniak People’s Democratic Community (NDZ) from the area of northwest Bosnia were particularly under attack by the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), also Bosniak, being physically and psychologically harassed. Similar method were used by the members of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) against, inter alia, the members of “apostate” New Croatian Initiative (NHI) and the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). The aggressive intolerance of the members of the leading national parties was especially manifest against the members of the parties of opposition of social-democratic orientation. For example, a local leader of the Social-Democrats of BH in Travnik, where SDA is in power, was beaten by the police.
The property and property rights are manipulated with throughout BH. In spite of constant pressures, the laws concerning the restitution, privatisation and protection of property of individuals, transformation and legal regularisation of the state-owned (formerly socially-owned) property were not brought. The property of refugees and displaced persons as well as the former social property are particularly subject to manipulation and corrupt dealing. This is characteristuc of the whole RS, the laws of which have made possible the usurpation of the so called abandoned property, but also for those areas where SDA (unlawful manipulation in Bugojno with the Croat property, and in Sarajevo with the Serb property were most frequently mentioned) and HDZ dominate (abuse of Bosniak and Serb property in the areas of Mostar, Stolac and Capljina).
Meanwhile, upon the insistence of the OHR, the People’s Assembly of RS has passed decisions by which the discriminatory provisions in the area of property and occupancy rights were nullified. There are also pressures being exerted in order that the norms from this area be amended in the BH Federation territory and that the provisions of the entity laws governing thiese areas be harmonised, adopted and implemented.
The traffic has improved throughout BH. The roads have become safer while the new bus and air lines were opened. Gradual normalisation of railroad traffic is expected. However, one can still not speak of the freedom of movement.
Finally, an absurd situation where people were massively denied the right to communication was resolved. I.e. in February, after two years, about one million of letters and other mail addressed to the citizens of RS were given over. The mail was being kept at the General Post Office in Sarajevo because the RS authorities were refusing to accept it.
The violation of social rights becomes more and more a growing concern. The war destruction, slow renewal of economy, the avoidance of legal obligations and improper operation of governmental authorities have led to the rights of hundreds of thousands of people being jeopardised. Only in the area of the BH Federation there are half million people living under existential minimum, where there are about 240,000 unemployed. Those employed are for major part employed illegaly, while their employers do not respect working hours and are not paying their contributions for health and pension insurance. Especially the young are subject to exploitation. Non payment of contributions severely depletes health and pension insurance funds, this having further negative impact upon the lives of many people. Severely vulnarable groups are displaced persons, veterans, disabled and pensioners.
The establishment of the police in accordance with new constitutional system and its reform takes place slowly. The objective that the police be freed from the control of the ruling parties and fully professionalised in accordance with the standards of western democracies is far from being realised. One of the priorities is the formation of multi-ethnic police forces. In two ethnically mixed cantons of the BH Federation such police forces were set up after great resistance and many impediments. Still however, in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton 90 percent of the policemen are Croats, while in Una-Sana Canton 90 percent of the policemen are Bosniaks. The situation is even more difficult in the RS, where only 42 policemen are non-Serbs, and they are all located in Brcko, which is under the international supervision. The data on violence and other forms of harassment, along with enormous number of unresolved police cases, all speak of the inefficiency of the police and its political dependence. Based upon foreign assistance and anti-terrorist squad was formed in the BH Federation, the presence of which shows its effects as of recent, at least if we are to judge by the successful investigation and raising of bill of indictment against eight Bosniaks from central Bosnia on charge of violence against Croats. A special unit composed of members from several countries came to Bosnia for the purpose of preventing riots and attacks against the returnees.
Often not only do the police not perform its basic function and protect human rights, but its members sometimes take part in their violation themselves. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH has demanded that the competent bodies of authorities react and behave responsibly to this sense, particularly concerning the operation of secret services. Thus it happened it was the media that first published articles about the murder and attempted murder in the settling of account within the Agency for Information and Documentation (AID), secret police under the control of SDA. In RS also a high police officer was murdered, and that criminal act accompanied with a number of other criminal acts in which the police took part, were brought in connection with the former member of the BH Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik, the closest associate of the war criminal Radovan Karadzic. Because of the involvment of policemen in unlawful acts and non-observance of duty which resulted in heavy consequences for many, the officers of peace mission have brought a number of decisions concerning the replacement and discharge from duty of the high police officers and administrative workers in both entities.
The political manipulation with the police was evident, especially during the elections time, when the parties in power used the police even as physical force to combat their political opponents. In several cases the target of the police were independent media and journalists in both entities, while in Central Bosnia Canton the police forces were used against the coal miners.
The political situation in the country negatively reflects upon the judiciary and efficiency of courts. In many parts of the country the judiciary is under the direct political control, not democratically controlled by the public, especially in those places where ultranationalists are in power. There are even open pressures upon the judiciary. Thus for example, the then Chairperson of the BH Presidency and the President of the SDA Alija Izetbegovic convened the meeting of all the highest ranking persons in charge of judiciary in the BH Federation and federal and cantonal judges criticizing them severely for the situation, quoting the examples of court actions being taken or not. Izetbegovic had no grounds in the Constitution for acting in such a way for he thus exerted direct pressure upon the judiciary.
The courts are being made dependent through more perfidious manipulations as well. For example, in the Canton of Sarajevo, the President of the Cantonal Court appoints the cantonal judges, which in itself is not a problem, but for that decision he needs the approval of all seven mayors of the municipalities of the Canton. Thus therefore, the executive power appears as superior to the judiciary. The dependence of thus appointed judges is particularly obvious from the financial side. The courts do not have a fully defined annual budget within which to perform their function. They procure the funds from the local authorities periodically and at need, which means that they depend on those who finance them, this, among else, opening a door to manipulation and discrimination against certain courts and judges. There were cases of improper election of judges, as for example in Central Bosnia Canton, where during the election procedure the representatives of the judiciary and legal profession were not consulted, this being in contravention to the Universal Declaration on Independence of Judiciary. Illustrative is also the replacement of the Deputy Minister for Justice in the Federal Government on the part of the Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic (top ranking SDA official), who gave the explanation that the deputy minister’s office continued to pile up the lost cases in which the BH Federation had been sued by the individuals before the Human Rights Chamber.
The independent media are facilitating the creation of democratic environment for the work of judiciary.
However, the judges complain that the media pressure reflects negatively upon their work, especially in those cases when the plaintiffs or defendents are the media and journalists themselves.
The international peace mission put among the priorities the reform of the judiciary system. This work is in the major part of the country in its initial phase.
The positive action taken in this direction was the decision of the BH Federation Parliament to abolish the capital punishment in that entity, which came about after pressures from abroad. Because of obvious political manipulation and non-observance or violation of relevant international conventions in the area of judiciary, the international mission and domestic and foreign NGOs active in the area of protection of human rights reacted on several occasions. This collective pressure served in several cases to correct the obvious mistakes and procedural irregularities through the action of higher court instances. However, there are still cases where the procedure and judgements are obviously unsatisfactory, as is for the example the case of the arrest, investigation, trial and sentence to the group of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in the RS or the case in which a group of displaced Bosniaks who physically assaulted an elderly Serb during his visit to the cemetery, causing his death, were given only a suspended sentence. The trials of the members of DNZ accused of war crimes also were attracting particular attention. The external pressure contributed to corrections in these cases, however, a high official of that party and parliament representative was sentenced to a high sentence by a first instance court.
The terrorist acts and other kinds of violence and harassment are rarely punished, as is also rare that the perpetrators and those who order such acts be discovered. The attention of the public was drawn by the judgement passed to the foreign nationals (who also possessed domestic IDs) for placing the car bomb in the west, Croat dominated, part of Mostar. This act, in which more than fifty people were injured and in which great material damage was caused, was qualified in the sentence as an act of putting the safety of people and property, not as terrorist act, as originally defined in the bill of indictment. What is encouraging here is the fact that the police action of apprehension of the Bosniak terrorists in central Bosnia was successfully completed and terrorists brought to justice.
What has been said above about the relation between the authorities and the law speaks of the character and quality of these authorities. After the signing of the Peace Agreement, the general and local elections were held twice in BH, plus extraordinary elections in the RS once. These elections did not in essence generally change the balance of power, although in the RS there were changes in favor of the alternative block of parties, while in the BH Federation there was a strengthening of social democracy. The momentum of war inertia still paralyses the establishment and operation of new governmental authorities.
What causes special concern is the fact that the central state bodies are not functioning and that the new municipal assemblies, especially in the RS, are not yet established or are not working. SDS and SRS are refusing to accept the results of the elections in those areas where they were dominating, while the newly elected representatives in the municipal bodies, the Bosniaks from the Coalition for Integral and Democratic BH (KCD), are even being physically assaulted. Thus, a Bosniak who was the deputy President of the municipal government was beaten in the very municipal hall in Zvornik. The representatives of KCD were stoned while returning home from the session of the municipal assembly of Bratunac. In Foca, where KCD won 40 percent of the votes, the ultranationalistic parties disregarded the results of the elections, wishing to preserve their monopoly of power while the representatives of the KCD were threatened by throat-slitting by mob of people. In Modrica, the Croat and Bosniak representatives in the municipal assembly are subject to constant attacks on the part of the representatives of the SDS and SRS because of their using mother tongue. The equality of languages is not accepted in Trebinje and other municipalities of RS also. The demand to change the text of the oath, which is exclusively of orthodox religious nature, is also not accepted, although there are representatives who are Muslims, Catholics or atheists.
Because of all this, the highest officials of the Peace Mission are forced, on the basis of the Dayton Agreement and authorizations given by the Steering Board for implementation of this agreement, to bring decisions which make BH seem like a protectorate. In such a way the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has brought decisions on the design of the flag, new money bills and car license plates. The international high officials have also decided to discharge some of the domestic officials because of their taking extremist positions or not performing their duty, and forced such people, on all levels of power, “voluntarily” to resign. There were cases, when the arbitration of peace mission was invoked, where municipal assemblies were dismissed, due to them not respecting the results of the elections. In certain municipalities where the parties could not reach an agreement about the establishment of new bodies, provisional administration, with foreigners at their head, was introduced. As already mentioned, several high police officers and administrative workers were removed from the duty or service.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH, continuously working on the issues of functioning of and relation between the authorities and law, has estimated that the last general elections served to promote democracy, but has also emphasized the question of responsibility in establishment of and constitutional and legal operation of the newly elected bodies. The non-implementation of the results of the elections, accompanied with the tendency of the parties in power to preserve the monopoly by methods which fall outside the system negativelly reflects on the process of democratisation and thus on the human rights issue.
The positive fact is the commencement of the work of the Ombudsmen Office and the Human Rights Chamber in BH which compose the Commission for Human Rights established by the Dayton Agreement composed of the international and local representatives. The decisions of the Human Rights Chamber are final and binding and in cases up to now some evident injustices were corrected. The BH Federation Ombudsmen continue successful engagement and work, among else, by spreading the network of their offices in the country. The RS still does not have Ombudsmen. However, the governmental authorities in the both entities constantly resist to decisions and positions of the bodies and organisations working on the issue of human rights.
The greatest number of claims addressed to them are for major part being disregarded.
From the point of view of lawfulness and law, the entire BH is the area of their daily violation. Relative to this, the Republic of Srpska is a truly civilisational black hole. However, severe violations of human rights take place continuously where HDZ and SDA are in power, especially under conditions of national supremacy and in regions far from democratic surveillance and eyes of the public.

POSITION OF MEDIA
Through media, both dependent and independent, the political courses can be seen. Pressure over them is not subsided. The transformation of mass media the founder of which is the authority is in course. Conflict of interests of dependent media and their mentors, independent media and their supporters are on the scene, with more expressed foreign interest in this sphere.
The independent media and journalists are exposed to internal and public verbal and physical harassment, they are being attacked by the police and courts. Thus, the journalist Mirjana Micic was sentenced to five months of imprisonment i.e. to suspended sentence of one year because of the text published in the independent “Extra Magazine”. in that newspaper, being published in the RS (Bijeljina), her article was published, under the pseudonym, about the heap up riches by the war profitiers in nearby Zvornik. The former police chief in that city Dragomir Vasic filed a private sue against Micic, because he and the local functioneries concluded that she might have been the author of the text. She was immediately dismissed from the office at the information house “Srpski glas” where she was was temporarily employed. Micic stated that during the trial she was completely lonely and that judge did not allow her to present all details concerning the article and was interrupting her while defending herself. Editor-in-chief of the “Extra magazine” Jovica Petkovic was also faced with a private sue.
He was sued by the Director of TV Zvornik Zoran Ivanovic. Namely, “Extra magazine” called Ivanovic out because of the manipulation with switching off the program of the Banja Luka studio from his transmitter in order to prevent from informing on activities of the parties opposed to SDS which is in power in Zvornik. Ivanovic brought criminal charges against petkovic because he did not want to disclose the real name of the author of the text, which was also written by Micic. Then, Petkovic, in agreement with Micic disclosed her name, and they shared the accusation. At the time of this report this process was still in course. The circumstances under which the independent jounlalists work in the RS can be illustrated by the fact that one uniformed policeman had beaten up the deputy editor-in-chief of “daily independent newspaper” Ranko Vojvodic in a caffe in Banja Luka. He believes he was beaten because of his article in this newspaper, stating that he and the editor-in-chief were exposed to direct and telephone harassment by the former policemen loyal to Radovan Karadzic and his followers. The attack on freedom of informing is also evident in the decision made by the mayor of Brcko, which is under international supervision, Borko Reljic, to expel the journalists from the session of the city government, although the sessions were always open for the public. There is a drastic example of the monopoly over informing in Cajnice in which the President of the municipal assembly was the only source of information for media in that municipality. No one dares to give any information or to respond to questions. namely, Kornjaca named himself the only municipal spokesperson.
In the past period, in Sarajevo, the independent magazine “Dani” was especially attacked. the severest incident took place when Ismet Bajramovic Celo accompanied with four other men, threatened and harassed the magazines’s editor-in-chief Senad Pecanin and present editorial staff and physically ill-treated them as well.Among other things, Bajramovic pressed a pistol against Pecanin’s temple and only after a few shots fired by him to his companions was it clear that those were so-called blank pistols, of which, of course, no one of the staff had been aware. Bajramovic then produced another pistol and sprayed Pecanin’s head with red-coloured water. Both before and after this act of violence, Pecanin and Dani journalists were threatened because of an article by Dzenana Korup, which investigated activities of individuals and groups in the major Federation cities, alluding to their rather frequent unlawful behaviour which remains unpunished, i.e. covered by political protection. In his treats to the editors and journalists of Dani, Bajramovic particularly stressed that that article was the reason why he had been approached with criticism by Bakir Izetbegovic, the son of Alija Izetbegovic, former Chair of the BH Presidency and leader of the strongest Bosniak political organisation, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), and by a delegate of that Party, Senad Sahinpasic aka Saja, a friend of the Izetbegovic’s family. In Dnevni avaz, which is under the control of SDA, after the assaults over the Dani editorial staff, appeared a text with the photograph of Karup and “her” statement that Pecanin introduced the names of Bakir Izetbegovic and Senad Sahinpasic without her knowledge. In fact, the journalist of Dani was forcefully taken to the caffe belonging to Bajramovic in which she signed already prepared statement for Dnevni avaz and was photographed. The five assailants on Pecanin and journalists were fined with only 60 DM each.
The Helsinki Committee reacted sharply in this case also as well as in case of judgement to Pecanin who was sentenced to a suspended sentence of two months after the charges brought against him by the editor-in-chief of Dnevni avaz Fahrudin Radoncic for alleged libel. The Committee warned that all rights implyed for fair procedure were not respected and that the rights of the accused according to the European Convention on protection of human rights and freedoms and that the Law on Criminal Proceedings was not observed. Namely, the court did not accept Pecanin’s proposal to check his defenders.
There are present political pressures over the journalists. Thus, Alija Izetbegovic, after a number of critics addressed him, his son and SDA, in an interview sorted journalists into “journalists” and “journalists prostitutes”. The latter qualification refers to severe writers from independent media, but to hide it Izetbegovic praised several journalists from the independent media. The assaults over the freedom of media are characteristical also for the territories under the control of the Croatian Democratic Union. Thus, editor-in-chief of Posavske novine from Orasje Mika Damjanovic is under constant pressures. Among else, he is asked to submit one copy of the newspaper to the Attorney of Posavski Canton prior to its distribution. Damjanovic’s newspaper has continued uncompromisingly to criticise the cantonal rulers, who, at the end, by blackmailing and harassing the journalists succeded in their dismissal. In its issue of 24/25 November, Oslobodjenje reported on discharge of the Radio – Kupres journalist Ivo Cirkovic, which was handed over to him by Kupres rulers without any valid explanation. Exasperated with such acts, the journalists, his associate correspondents from Kupres, working either for the media in BH or in Croatia, sent petition to Ombudspersons and the representatives of the international community. In Capljina, the police detained two journalists of Feral Tribune for interrogation. This magazine’s journalists from the Republic of Croatia (Split), sharply critized the regime of Franjo Tudjman and the policy of HDZ, were interrogated and they were surrounded by about twenty policemen and among other things, they were asked why they had not reported their coming into Capljina to the local police. In Sarajevo, the journalist of the Radio Free Europe (Slobodna Evropa) Nikola Gurovic was arrested because of evasion (this refers to unjustified travelling expenses made at the time when he was a journalist of the BH Radio and TV). After his editorial staff and the NGOs in Sarajevo reacted, Gurovic was released with the explanation that claims based on evasion were obsolete.
Sometimes there are corrections of injustice towards journalists. Thus, the court in Gradacac (BH F) in which the SDA is in power, brought about the decision to return the journalist to his place of work – editor of center for culture, information and economy in Gradacac Mehmed Imsirovic and to compensate him for all the salaries. Imsirovic was harassed because he was not a member of the SDA.
In the dependent media, the editorial policy of ethnic and religious intolerence, even hatred is still conducted. Relative to this, the radio station St. John (Sveti Jovan), the owner of which is Sonja, a daughter of Radovan Karadzic, can be especially pointed out. Even the UN Mission evaluated this program as shamful.
Ultranationalistic messages are characteristic of media in those muncipalities where SDS and SRS are in power. In relation with this, the monitors of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH have warned that chauvinist songs were broadcast by radio stations in Modrica and in the so-called Serb Sarajevo. The situation is similar with media under the control of HDZ in the area of Herzegovina, where the international mission had to react on the several occasions, even to discharge the editors and journalists because of their inciting to hatred. In the area where SDA is in power, the example of extreme intolerance was a several hour broadcast of the radio Sanski Most within which, upon the initiative of the editor, ultranationalistic campaign against the return of the Serbs so that municipality was being conducted, with threats expressly issued. Recently, a number of court cases in relation to abuse of freedom of media has increased. An achievement in a promotion of democracy is represented by the fact that the courts in Sarajevo have managed to preserve the independence and professional dignity when passing judgements in the cases in which the accused journalists were strongly politically backed.
The issue of reform of the former state RTV network in BH is one of the most interesting ones during the transition period. The first steps toward reform were made in the Serb radio TV house (Banja Luka studio) where a new board of directors, international supervisror and management were appointed. However, such measures did not pervade throughout the network, this enabling that the influence of the SDS, SRS and Radovan Karadzic himself still hold some influence. The transformation of RTV BH was also begun, where also on the basis of the decision of the High Representative Carlos Westendorp, the provisional board of directors, international supervisory body and new director of RTV BH were appointed. As RS is not interested in having a hjoint RTV house, the actions are being taken to constitute the RTV F BH, with channels allocated according to the ethnic proportion (Croat and Bosniak programmes). Such a concept was received with criticism which maintained that this does not contribute to the democratisation but rather to further partition and ethnic confrontation.
In BH there exists a great number of media. Only in the domain of electronic media there are 297 of them. There is new media being created, supported by the international factors for the purpose of the democratisation of the information sector, especially in the RS. However, the reactionary forces are also starting the private TV houses with the aim to use the disguise of private companies in order to court the international institutions, while continuing with their chauvinist propaganda. The real independent media are barely surviving, because economy is still weak, markets very limited, and the purchasing capacity of the population extremely low.
The international authorities have placed the reform of media system in BH high on the list of their priorities. Apart from the above measures, and the presence of foreign RTV programmes, attempts were made that separate RTV network be formed from abroad (OBN, Free Europe, FERN). Thus, BH has now become a battle ground for particular media propaganda war, but also a place of competition of politically strategic importance. The High Representative, along with the existing institutions who are in charge of these matters within the Peace Mission mandate, has also set up the Independent Media Commission (IMC) which deals with the licences for electronic media, cases of violation of the code of professional behaviour, and creation of conditions for regulating this area according to the western standards.
This Commission, composed of foreign and domestic representatives was criticized for having three former foreign soldiers for its members.
The reform of media should above all be directed toward such transformation which would really contribute to the overall social transformation and democratisation in BH. To that sense, the media increasingly acquire key importance in further promotion and reaffirmation of human rights.

CONCLUSION
The full legal framework for the area of human rights has not yet been created in BH. The constitutions of the entities, among else, have not yet been harmonised with the BH Constitution. The resistance of the leading destructive elements and political monopolists is obvious, for they are trying, both in the area of norms and practically to hinder the process which would lead to creation of conditions for real equality of citizens, nations, ethnic and political minorities and full expression and full protection of human rights and freedoms. On the other hand, it is obvious that the issue of human rights becomes an unavoidable issue both in political and everyday life. No party of civic orientation can count on success among the voters if it does not proove that it is really committed to the fight for the human rights and freedoms.
The activities of a number of domestic and international organisations have contributed to ever increasing reaffirmation and protection of human rights. They were helped in this by the responsiveness and engagement of the independent media. These media have responded to the initiatives undertaken in this domain, but they are more and more developing their own activities in the sphere of promotion and protection of human rights. It is obvious that the element of human rights, as important segment of programmes and editorial policies, has now become one of those crucial criteria by which to recognize the trully independent and free journalism. The awareness in regard to human rights has become an integral part of the overall social awareness. One should not neglect the achievements in this area, especially those concerning the protection of those rights that were jeopardised and those which served to rectify the injustices made. However, these results are at the present moment only individual, which is finally essential, but the results concerning the protection of aggregate human rights viewed as collective interest, like for example the equality of ethnic and political groups, rights of returnees and displaced persons to return, and the protection of property in general.
The space for action in the area of human rights was enlarged and the foundations of progress in this area are being strengthened daily. Throughout the year, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH was a stable, dynamic, creative and distinctive protagonist in the fight for the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms. The efforts of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH are increasingly receiving the support of media and public opinion and appreciated as significant contribution to the process of democratisation in these territories.

Sarajevo, December 1998
No: 15-12/98