Yesterday, Montenegro handed over to Bosnia and Herzegovina the mortal remains of Hasan Klapuh, which had been exhumed in Nikšić and identified through DNA analysis. Ferid Klapuh will thus finally be able to bury his parents and sister, who were killed in 1992 in Plužine, on the territory of Montenegro, by members of the Army of Republika Srpska.

In doing so, Montenegro has completed practically everything it could do in the Klapuh case. All that remains is for the site where the Klapuh family was killed to be appropriately commemorated.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, must ensure that the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.

Following an inquiry concerning the status of the transfer of the “Klapuh” case for prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NGO Human Rights Action was informed by the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro that, in 2025, it forwarded to the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina two requests from the Basic Court in Podgorica for the transfer or takeover of criminal proceedings—separately in respect of the convicted persons Radomir Kovač, in January 2025, and Zoran Vuković, in July 2025—pursuant to the European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Matters.

A procedural response from the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has therefore been pending for more than a year and a half since Montenegro transferred the entire case file to Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with material evidence of Radomir Kovač’s and Zoran Vuković’s involvement in the murders of Hasan, Ferida and Sena Klapuh. On the basis of that evidence, they were convicted in absentia in Montenegro as early as 1996.

We are concerned that an investigation has still not been opened in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreover, a serious error recently occurred when Ferid Klapuh, the surviving son and brother of the victims, was informed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the case would definitively not be prosecuted further “because it had already been adjudicated”.

In the meantime, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Ivan Matešić, informed us that this had been an error and that no decision had yet been made in the case.

These contradictory statements further deepen the uncertainty, while the ordeal of the surviving son of the Klapuh family and his wait for justice have continued for an unacceptably long time.

We recall that Hasan, Ferida and Sena Klapuh were killed on 6 July 1992 near Plužine by members of the Army of Republika Srpska. The perpetrators had previously agreed, in exchange for money, to transport them safely from Foča to Montenegro so that they could continue their journey to Macedonia. This was also the first war-crimes case from the 1990s to be prosecuted in the region. In 1996, a Montenegrin court issued a final judgment sentencing four direct perpetrators of the murders and one accomplice to prison terms. Only the accomplice, Vidoje Golubović from Montenegro, served his sentence, while the other four remained at large and were tried in absentia. Two of those convicted, Janko Janjić and Zoran Simović, have since died, while the remaining two, Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković, live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They served sentences imposed by the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed in Foča, but have not spent a single day in prison for the crime committed against the Klapuh family.

We call on the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina:

• to decide without delay whether to open an investigation against Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković on the basis of the evidence already submitted;
• to act in accordance with its international obligation to ensure that persons reasonably suspected of war crimes who are present on its territory do not remain unprosecuted.

We expect the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milanko Kajganić, to give due attention to this case and take all necessary measures to ensure that, 34 years after the war crime was committed, those responsible are finally brought to justice.