Republic Secretariat for Relations with International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and War Crimes Research (further on as Secretariat ) was formed as a separate administrative organization by Ministries Law (Official Gazette of RS no. 70/02).
The frame of affairs that are included in competency of this Secretariat is defined in the article 39 of mentioned Ministries Law (Official Gazette of RS no. 70/02, 33/04 and 33/06) and covered affairs that were previously done by three governmental agencies, until this Law went into effect, and those were:
-Bureau of Government of Republika Srpska for Relations with International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in The Hague,
-Centre for Documentation and
-Commission for Missing Persons and War Camp Detainees
Considering that Republic Secretariat for Relations with International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and Research War Crimes, according to Ministries Law (Official Gazette of RS no. 70/02) has undertake all affairs from mentioned three governmental agencies, based on that they ceased to exist, because mentioned Law did not keep their self-containment. However, during meeting that was held on 11 March 2003, representative of the International Commission for Missing Persons, Mrs. Kathryn Bomberger emphasized a wish that established competence of Republic Secretariat for Relations with International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and Research War Crimes, which were performed by Commission for Missing Persons, would separate from Secretariat and again transfer in to competence of Commission for Missing Persons and War Camp Detainees of Republika Srpska.
On the 5 May 2003, High representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Paddy Ashdown addressed a letter to President of the Government of Republika Srpska that contains direction for interpretation of the item 39 of mentioned Ministries Law, in a sense of bringing back Commission for Missing Persons of Republika Srpska on its previous position.
After that, the Government of Republika Srpska, on the session that took part on the 22 May 2003, has reached Decision under number 02/1-020-389/03 on foundation of the Office for Missing Persons and War Camp Detainees of Republika Srpska. With that, all affairs connected with searching of missing persons and prisoners, which were under competence of Secretariat, were transferred to mentioned Office, so from that day, Secretariat stopped performing mentioned activities. The assets that were meant for performance of mentioned kind of affairs were, after making above-mentioned Decision, transferred to the new founded Office for Missing persons and war camp detainees of Republika Srpska.
Considering that on the beginning of March 2003, the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) started initiative that already determined competence of the Secretariat, which were performed by Commission for Missing Persons and War Camp Detainees, separates from the Secretariat and again transfers in to the competence of Commission for Missing Persons and War Camp Detainees, which eventually happened on above described way, the Secretariat ceased any further activities immediately after Government of Republika Srpska reached mentioned Decision.
Republic Secretariat for Relations with International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and Research War Crimes submits annual report work to the Government of Republika Srpska.
Government of the Republika Srpska, at the session held on November 25, 2004 made a Decision appointing lawyer Jovan Spaic head of the Republic Secretariat for Cooperation with the International Tribunal in the Hague and War Crimes Investigations. (Biography of Jovan Spaic)
