Background Summary

Radovan Karadiz arrested

AVDO PALIC (BOSNIA)

Colonel Avdo Palic was the war-time commander of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UN ?safe haven? of Zepa in Eastern Bosnia. In late July 1995, Zepa surrendered to the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS, Vojska Republike Srpske). On 27 July, Colonel Palic was forcibly taken away by VRS soldiers from the UN Protection Forces (UNPROFOR) compound in Zepa where he had gone to negotiate with VRS General Zdravko Tolimir the evacuation of the remaining Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim) civilians.

In January 2001, the Human Rights Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Chamber) ordered the Republika Srpska (RS) to carry out a full investigation in the fate of Colonel Palic from the date of his ?disappearance? and to pay compensation to Mrs Palic for her mental suffering. The RS had three months to implement the Chamber?s decision but only at the end of 2001 was compensation paid to Mrs Palic. In October 2001, the RS Minister of Defense wrote the Human Rights Chamber stating that after receiving letters from Amnesty International members in Austria and France inquiring into Colonel Palic?s fate, the Ministry had made inquiries. It had found out that Colonel Palic was taken to a garrison prison in Bijeljina on 4 August 1995 and taken from there on 5 September by a Captain Dragomir Pecanac, allegedly acting on orders by VRS headquarters who intended to use him in a prisoner exchange. According to a letter sent by the RS Ministry of Interior to AI groups in March 2003, an investigation into the ?disappearance? of Colonel Palic was still ongoing.

In February 2005, Zdravko Tolimir was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Dragomir Pecanac is named in the indictment as a member of a joint criminal enterprise, the ?common purpose of which was to force the Muslim population out of the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves?. Both Tolimir and Pecanac remain at large.

Responding to a request from Mrs Palic to re-examine the degree of enforcement of the 2001 Chamber decision, the Commission for Human Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed on 7 September 2005 that her appeal was justified and that the Chamber?s decision had not been implemented. The Commission gave the RS until December 2005 to make up for its omissions, meaning that it has to carry out before the end of the year a complete investigation into the fate of Avdo Palic after he was taken away from the prison in Bijeljina and it has to keep Esma Palic fully informed of all information on the case.

In January 2006, the Commission considered the latest information supplied by the RS government and found it insufficient. On January 19, the outgoing High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, called on the RS to set up a commission to gather all information about the "disappearance". The commission was formed on January 25 and has till April 21 to submit its report to the OHR (Office of the High Representative).

Amnesty International UN CHR UN Documents