Bosnia, seven Serbs suspected of the Srebrenica massacre are arrested

2023-12-15 20:44:53, Kosova & Bota CNA

Bosnian state police on Friday arrested seven former members of the wartime Bosnian Serb army suspected of involvement in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. The massacre, which killed nearly 8,000 Bosniaks, has been recognized as genocide by two international courts. .

The suspects were arrested near the eastern town of Zvornik on suspicion of having committed the criminal act of genocide in the form of individual responsibility and line of command, the State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA) said.

Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic in July 1995 occupied the eastern town of Srebrenica. This territory was declared a "safe zone" by the United Nations for the approximately 40,000 civilians living around. Serbian forces, in the days following the occupation, nevertheless killed around 8,000 Muslim men and boys who were first separated from the women.

The prosecutor's office said the suspects were former commanders and members of the Zvornik brigade of the Bosnian Serb army, who are believed to have been involved in the killing of around 8,000 Bosniaks in Bosnia's Upper Rahovec area after the invasion of the eastern territory.

Most of their remains have been discovered from numerous mass graves scattered throughout eastern Bosnia, but there are still those whose bodies have never been found.

The Hague-based international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Ratko Mladic to life in prison in 2017 for the Srebrenica genocide, considered the most atrocious act in Europe since World War II.

The Bosnian Serb political leadership denies that the crime was genocide and generally downplays the level of Serb crimes in the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian war.

On Friday, Serbian war veterans from Zvornik threatened to launch protests and block roads over the arrests, saying the Serbian army had only protected "their ethnic compatriots and fought for freedom".

An estimated 100,000 people were killed and an estimated two million displaced from their homes during campaigns of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, according to war crimes researchers who published the "Bosnian Book of the Dead" and the UN refugee agency.

The State Information and Protection Agency said that the suspects will be handed over to the prosecution./ VOA