Justice Unseen as Bosnians Awaits Translation of ICJ Verdict

The state institutions claim that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not got the translation of the verdict as "they have been waiting for an original copy". The English and French versions of the verdict were uploaded on the web page of the Court of Justice on the day the verdict was passed.

In the political culoars of the Federation some representatives claim that attempts to translate the verdict were blocked by Bosnian Serbs who were always stringently against the ICJ lawsuit.

Others say that this initiative has never been discussed by the Presidency of BiH, which should take the responsibility for the translation.

On 26 February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) passed a verdict saying that Serbia, as a legal successor of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, did not commit, take part in or abet genocide in Bosnia.

Nevertheless, the Court has decided that Serbia did not do enough to prevent or punish those responsible for the genocide, and it therefore breached the Convention on Genocide Prevention and Punishment.

Analysts feel that as state institutions were the ones to bring the case before the ICJ in the first place, it is their responsibility to make a translated verdict available.

Damir Arnaut, legal advisor in the office of Haris Silajdzic, a member of Bosnia’s Presidency, confirmed that there was no official translation of the verdict.

Clarifying the importance of the translation, Arnaut said that only an official translation could be published in the Official Gazette, and only then can local institutions, including government and judicial institutions, call upon the verdict in their decision-making processes.

Arnaut confirmed that the Council of Ministers, Parliament or the three-member Presidency should initiate the translation.

"I must say that there have not been any official attempts to translate the verdict, although there have been some consultations during which we could see resistance of one side towards translating of the verdict," said Arnaut.

Arnaut was implying that Bosnian Serbs would block the move to translate the verdict.

Parliamentarians from the Party for BiH had initiated a procedure in parliament "and asked that a competent institution be requested to obtain the original copy of the verdict and provide an official translation".

Asked why they were not working on translation of the verdict published on the official web page of the Court of Justice Belkic responded: "We thought this was more serious. Every citizen with an internet connection can download the text from the web. We thought it would be more official this way."

According to experts' opinions, the translated verdict could be used in reconciliation processes, and some facts could be used in processes before the Court of BiH.

"It is extremely important for us to have an official translation as the verdict imposes some obligations for the concerned parties," said Sakib Softic, BiH agent in the dispute before the ICJ.

Softic added that he did not know why there was no translation and also said he was aware that this had led to different interpretations of the verdict in public.

(READ REPORT ON THIS AT http://www.bim.ba/en/60/10/2664/)