“Balkans – hub of war profiteers”

"Not a single war crime I have processed so far was committed without a robbery," says Serbia's War Crime Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic. In an article published by Belgrade daily Danas, Vukcevic stressed that war crimes and organized crime were "two faces of the same freak". “Balkans – hub of war profiteers” According to him, analyses of cases before the Serbian judiciary and the Hague Tribunal clearly show a pattern of intertwining of war crimes and transnational organized crime. “The Balkans is a hub of war profiteers, arms runners, drug smugglers, who used that wealth to build gas stations and other facilities that have permanent value, while they were demolishing churches and mosques and destroying the most sacred thing – human life,” said prosecutor, who attended an international summit against transnational crime in Paris. “The same people keep showing up and the same groups keep overlapping. There is hardly a war crime committed without a robbery. There is hardly an individual from the world of transnational organized crime who is not somehow linked to war crimes,” Vukcevic said. He added that there is a clear political will to combat transnational crime in all the countries in the region. The prosecutor commended cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, and stressed that the two countries had exchanged evidence in 26 war crimes cases.

“Balkans – hub of war profiteers”

According to him, analyses of cases before the Serbian judiciary and the Hague Tribunal clearly show a pattern of intertwining of war crimes and transnational organized crime.

“The Balkans is a hub of war profiteers, arms runners, drug smugglers, who used that wealth to build gas stations and other facilities that have permanent value, while they were demolishing churches and mosques and destroying the most sacred thing – human life,” said prosecutor, who attended an international summit against transnational crime in Paris.

“The same people keep showing up and the same groups keep overlapping. There is hardly a war crime committed without a robbery. There is hardly an individual from the world of transnational organized crime who is not somehow linked to war crimes,” Vukčević said.

He added that there is a clear political will to combat transnational crime in all the countries in the region.

The prosecutor commended cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, and stressed that the two countries had exchanged evidence in 26 war crimes cases.