Recalling that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague is scheduled to complete all investigations by the end of the year, HRW said that many war crimes prosecutions remained to be heard in courts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, which "as a rule, are ill-equipped to handle them."
"Setting up specialised war crimes chambers, as they have done in these countries, is a good thing, but there will still be hundreds of cases in Croatia and Bosnia that will need to be tried by ordinary local courts," explained Richard Dicker, director of the HRW International Justice Program.
"In local courts, we see bias against ethnic minorities, intimidation of witnesses, and police stonewalling investigations," he added.
HRW says that in Serbia-Montenegro, all war crimes cases will be tried by the Belgrade district court's special war crimes chamber, and that Serbian courts have conducted few war crimes trials.
In its latest report, "Justice at Risk: War Crimes Trials in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro", HRW examines domestic war crimes trials that have taken place since 2000, concluding that trials suffer from ethnic bias on the part of judges and prosecutors, poor case preparation by prosecutors, inadequate cooperation by the police with investigations, poor cooperation between states on judicial matters, a lack of witness protection mechanisms, and uncertainty on prosecuting command responsibility.
HRW urged the governments in the countries of the former Yugoslavia to improve the quality of domestic war crimes trials by implementing witness protection mechanisms, cooperating at the state level on war crimes prosecutions, training judges and prosecutors, and providing support and protection for them.
Noting that as part of its completion strategy, the Hague tribunal is scheduled to end investigations this year, trials by 2008 and appeals by 2010, HRW recalled that the tribunal's prosecutor had recently moved to refer cases back to the courts in Croatia and Bosnia as part of that strategy.
Dicker said that it was up to these three countries, "with the assistance of the European Commission, to address these problems, not only to advance the rule of law, but also if the countries are interested in becoming EU members."
HRW noted that respect for the rule of law and human rights was a fundamental condition for the countries of the Western Balkans to progress towards EU membership.