War criminals can’t hide here
Prague – They are gathering dust on shelves, but could make war criminals tremble: the archives of the OSCE, an international organisation addressing security-related concerns, are increasingly becoming a source for those who seek to prove abuses committed during conflicts in Europe.
The field reports of the observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe – stacked in an elegant white villa on a leafy hill on the outskirts of Prague – document conflicts on the continent since 1975.
No media have until now been allowed access, according to the OSCE, as the organisation – set up during the Cold War to build trust between the West and the Soviet Union – usually doesn’t seek publicity to continue collecting information from the ground.
But it is here that famous prosecutor Carla Del Ponte combed through documents for the 2002 indictment of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
Documentalist Alice Nemcova, who reigned over this universe of cardboard boxes enclosing billions of yellowed A4 sheets from 1991 until last month, has seen the collection gain in importance.
“The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) set a precedent by wanting to access our files,” the 63 year old said. “Del Ponte kept asking for more. She received four metal boxes filled with testimonies and photos of mass graves.”
The UN established the ICTY in 1993, to try perpetrators of war crimes committed in the ethnic violence that followed the break-up of former Yugoslavia in the ’90s.
Milosevic, who faced 66 counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia, was never convicted as he died in prison in 2006 during the trial.
However, others accused by the tribunal have been found guilty and jailed.
“The International Criminal Court (ICC) also made a request concerning Georgia in 2012,” Nemcova said.
Four years later, the ICC launched an investigation into the conflict between the Caucasus country and Russia.
The Kosovo Force (KFOR), the Nato-led troops tasked with protecting Kosovo for the past two decades, also applied for access to the OSCE in 2017, as did the Red Cross, which was looking for missing people. – AFP