It could be called the third generation of international justice: after the UN's international courts for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda, and the mixed model of Sierra Leone, the newest and most eagerly-awaited experience - outside the International Criminal Court in The Hague - has its headquarters in Sarajevo. The Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) War Crimes Chamber is a semi-international court housed on the premises of the BiH state court, the highest court in the country since the 1995 peace accords. Ten years after the end of the war, the chamber is about to open its first trial on 14 September.
The accused, Boban Simsic, was a member of a paramilitary unit in Visegrad whose commander, Milan Lukic, due to be extradited from Argentina to the ICTY. Simsic gave himself up to European troops based in BiH on 24 January. On 19 July he pleaded not guilty to five counts against him for the imprisonment and ill treatment of Muslim Bosnians, and for looting their possessions. His lawyer asked the court to delay the trial to allow him more time to prepare his case.

Easing pressure on the ICTY

The special chamber is the result of a process that started two-and-ahalf years ago. In January 2003, the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia issued a set of joint conclusions recommending the creation of a specialized chamber within the BiH court and a specialized war crimes department within the BiH office of the prosecutor. In reality, the creation of the War Crimes Chamber is a direct consequence of the ICTY's exit strategy, to help it achieve its trial court work before the 2008 deadline set by the international community. The chamber will have jurisdiction over cases deferred to it by the international tribunal and over the most sensitive cases pending before the national courts.

About 15 ICTY defendants and 50 more case files are coming to Sarajevo

In the last twelve years, the ICTY has indicted 162 individuals and tried 44. This is a drop in the ocean, given the 10,750 individuals on whom the War Crimes Chamber has information linking them to crimes committed between 1991 and 1995. Many Bosnians seem to have placed the same amount of hope in the War Crimes Chamber that they had previously placed in the UN court, which over the years has been frustrated by the length of the proceedings and by the perceived distance of the tribunal for former Yugoslavia from the common Bosnian citizen. The special chamber now has jurisdiction to try war crimes in BiH. It expects to inherit about 15 ICTY defendants, together with about 50 more case files prepared by the international tribunal. It has already reviewed the 846 cases prepared by Bosnian investigators that the ICTY prosecutor was satisfied were ready for trial. It has decided to try 206 of these cases, including Simsic. The remaining cases are to be sent before 16 district or canton courts in BiH which, in reality, will bear the brunt of the legal work with extremely scanty resources.

Trials for war crimes are a very delicate issue in a society like today's BiH, which is still deeply divided along the fractures created by the recent conflict. For this reason, following the model of numerous post-conflict judicial bodies in BiH, the war crimes chamber is a national institution operating with temporary international participation. Today, two of the three trial judges are foreign. In 2008, the trend should be reversed and in 2009, the entire international staff should, in theory, have withdrawn. But it may not be a smooth ride. This summer, the presence of foreign judges sparked numerous polemics. The local press made much of revelations of accusations of corruption levelled against Rwandan judge Gerald Gahima in his home country. It is not yet clear whether he will hold onto his post. At the end of July, British judge Paul Garlick resigned in protest after the High Representative arbitrarily assigned him also to another chamber dealing with organized crime. "I did not come here to deal with cases of organized crime. I could have done that in England", he said to explain his departure.

Another point of potential uncertainty surrounds the new rules of criminal procedure that the international community introduced in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the 2003 legal reforms. The new code is a blend of the prosecutorial and inquisitorial system and many of its provisions have not yet been tested, and are largely foreign to Bosnia and Herzegovina judicial culture. A lesson that international expertise appears to be adding to the difficulties of the national judicial system.