Once a War Criminal, Always a War Criminal?

The question of rehabilitation and reintegration of war criminals has not attracted much attention either in the countries of the former Yugoslavia or internationally. This is somewhat odd considering that 59 of 91 individuals sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY have already been released from prison after serving sentences for grave crimes.

The number of individuals sentenced for war crimes by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its entity courts who have completed their sentences is even higher. Consequently, hundreds of people have potentially been released from domestic and international prisons and have returned to local communities. Very little is known about most of these people: once released, they often live in isolation as a result of the stigma attached to their crimes, away from the public eye.

A recent controversy in Bosnia and Herzegovina sparked by a senior politician's suggestion that people who have served their sentence for war crimes should no longer be considered war criminals, has put the issue of rehabilitation in the spotlight.

The controversy intensified when media published a video of convicted war criminal Dario Kordic saying he did not regret his wartime conduct: "I would do it all over again. I wouldn't change a second of it. Every second was worth it," Kordic said, sparking angry reactions from war victims' associations. The Bosnian prosecution also opened an investigation after receiving a criminal complaint.

Although it was operational for almost 24 years, neither the ICTY, nor the European countries where war criminals convicted by the Hague court have been serving their prison sentences, developed specialised rehabilitation programmes for perpetrators of...