Bosnia: Three indicted for war crimes against Serbs

Bosnia: Three indicted for war crimes against Serbs

The three are former members of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (RBiH), the Army of RBiH, and the Croatian Defense Forces (HOS).

They are suspected of taking part a joint criminal enterprise aimed at killing Serb civilians.

The indictment also includes unlawful arrest and detention of Serbs in facilities in the area of Trnovo, setting fire to their property, murder and inhumane treatment of captured members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS).

The victims were mostly elderly (some over 80 years of age), a large number of women, and a child born in 1990.

One of the most extensive indictments raised by the Bosnian Prosecutor's Office, with the assistance of their Serbian colleagues, proposes to call around 140 witnesses to the stand and provides over 300 pieces of physical evidence, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office released on Monday.

After a long and thorough investigation, evidence has been collected against tens of identified perpetrators of war crimes committed in the territory of several villages in the area of Trnovo.

These cases will be forwarded to relevant judicial authorities in BiH entities for further processing, the release states.

The mostly Serb-populated Sarajevo municipality of Trnovo fell to the Muslim Army of RBiH in the summer of 1992, when 124 Serb civilians were killed, including 48 women and four children. Among the victims were all nine members of the Tešanović family, who were executed in the village of Ljuta, near Kalinovik. The youngest victim, Milun Tešanović, was only 18 months old.

The investigation team from Bosnia's Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) came into possession of the video footage recorded at that time by TV Gornji Vakuf, showing that nearly all houses in Trnovo were burned to the ground and only the walls of a Serbian orthodox church remained standing.

The footage shows Serb women in the Muslim camp in Trnovo saying that the prisoners include 50 women and children and around 40 men, the youngest being 14 and the eldest 80 years old.

The RS investigation team sent this footage to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Prosecutor's Office back in 1994, along with extensive documentation, and raised charges against 54 persons for these crimes.