300. At the outset, the Appeals Chamber recalls that Article 49 of Geneva Convention IV applies to instances of displacement across the de facto borders of an occupied territory.[1] In the Stakić case, the Appeals Chamber held that “the actus reus of deportation is the forced displacement of persons by expulsion or other forms of coercion from the area in which they are lawfully present, across a de jure state border or, in certain circumstances, a de facto border, without grounds permitted under international law”.[2]

301. The Appeals Chamber considers, therefore, that the Trial Chamber properly examined whether a state of occupation existed in those places in relation to which the Indictment raised allegations of deportation as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, i.e. in West Mostar and the municipalities of Prozor, Ljubuški, Stolac, and Čapljina.[3] That inquiry involved an element of the crime of deportation itself – the crossing of a de facto border, i.e. the boundary of the occupied territory, or across a de jure border – which was separate and distinct from the general requirements for the application of the “grave breaches” regime under Article 2 of the Statute.