Five war crimes suspects arrested

This is precisely why the Serbian Foreign Minister’s and the President’s talk of the sanctity of international law has fallen and will continue to fall on deaf ears. International law is meant to protect people and the reason why we talk about international law in the first place is because of the horrors of WWII.

In the 90’s the Serbs primarily, but not exclusively conducted a campaign of horrendous acts of violence towards the other peoples of the western Balkans for the sole purpose of gaining more land, and despite having the entire weight of the international law and justice placed on their backs, they never stopped. They tied UN peacekeepers to utility poles, humiliated them and the UN and killed thousands of innocent men in Srebrenica, WHILE the world was shouting “INTERNATIONAL LAW”.

Fast forward to 2009, and the same Serbs claim that because they now have a democratically elected Government, the other people of the Balkans, such as the Bosniaks and the Kosovar Albanians should just “trust” them with their future.

International Law, in the way Serbs understand it, is a joke, it’s a complete distortion of the purpose of International Law.

Can you believe it. These animals were living amongst ordianry people.
This is why I have mentioned earlier that, White Schengen will allow these kind of animals to travel through Europe and settle for sometime next to anybody's house, giving them chances to do horrible things.
And of course, these are in minority that needs to be behind the bars not to represent Serbia.

Terrible war crimes! God job from the prosecution and good example to follow...

Wow! Really?? No way!
I'm afraid they will have to build some more prison cells.

Nick settle down we don’t even know if the suspects are Serbian, Muslim Bosnian or even Albanian for that matter. The point here is that the Serbian authorities have caught them which is a lot more than the Criminal leadership in Kosovo is doing! And that is why Kosovo will remain the black hole it is today and will continue to get deeper. No free travel throughout Europe, for Kosovo Albanians.

Some absurd things being said here:
Nick 'This is precisely why the Serbian Foreign Minister’s and the President’s talk of the sanctity of international law has fallen and will continue to fall on deaf ears...'

What the fact that these men has been apprehended and their crimes documented by the Serbian war crimes prosecutor is evidence of Serbia not respecting international law??? Now these crimes are unspeakable and if true they should lock away these men and thrown away the key, but the fact that they are being prosecuted does not show Serbia to be a lawless state.

What is does show is that paramilitaries were given a free hand during that war and they committed war crimes (as I've always contended, with the odd exception).

Olf you are suggesting what, that Serbia should not get white schengen because war crimes were committed in the war? Well that disqualfies all participants from schengen don't you think? And quite frankly what makes European lives so precious? These men should not be walking the streets of Belgrade, Pristina or Zagreb either. We have the same right to safety as EU countries. You made that connection, I can't understand why.

No, I commend the War Crimes prosecutor for bringing this case and hope that as many war criminals as possible can be put behind bars - where they belong.

im not interested to know the identity / ethinicity of these 5 criminals, whatever they are (yes, even if somehow they were albanian) they should be hanged if they have commited the crimes that they are accussed of.

no human being should suffer that way.

Interesting article and remarks. Seems that people making these remarks are confused and so am I. Knowing from the past experiences, when serbs are arrested, usually, their names are immediately disclosed wether right or wrong, who cares. So we need to wait and see.

From previous knowledge, serbs do not kill romas and knife is not their choice of arms. Figure it for yourself who does, we even seen it on TV. Anyway, who ever done this or any other crime in Balcan civil war, should suffer extreme punishment.

Nick KS,

It is 2009. Are you suggesting that all Serbs should be punished? Should International Law no longer apply? Really, what is your point?

These are terrible crimes that should not go unpunished, so bad that I cannot comprehend it but you're attitude appears to be that all Serbs should suffer forevermore. All that you are doing is showing your own prejudice.

If these people truly committed these crimes then they deserve to be locked up forever. I am glad to see this initiative as we need to hunt down and imprison Serbians that committed these horrendous crimes. It's much better seeing this in our own country rather than an anti-Serbian NATO court in the Hague.

Serbians in general acknowledge crimes and we always have. The difference with our position is that we have always called for universal justice while our opponents always call for selective justice. That is the biggest difference.

I am glad that we generally don't have people directly involved in the Balkan wars as part of the government or opposition. It has allowed us to focus on our country rather than the constant blame games being played in Pristina, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Zagreb. Who really wants alleged war criminals or criminals as their leaders?

good comment nick. Its stating the obvious

hang them!

"...Fast forward...

(Nick KS, 6 November 2009 11:36).."

>>> No question that the war crimes committed by anyone World-around should be punished swiftly.

Simple major problem of your comment is exactly that..."Fast forward".

Deliberate "Fast forward" to neglect and not mention Serbs as a major victims of Kosovo Albanian, Croatian, Bosnian Muslim extremists in your short and deliberate analysis. Tens of thousands Serbs in the course of ex-Yu wars and millions in XX-th century.

Your "Fast forwarded" truth will bring nothing to the tolerance and reconciliation in the Region, but is clear blind "poetic" speech of hate.

Nik and others,

Like most of the comments that I've read here, your Albanian understanding of the Yugoslav Wars is appalling.

First, the Serbs did not start any war. We responded to acts of aggression against the Yugoslav state.

What right do the Slovenes, Croatians, Bosnian muslims and Albanians have to violently dismantle an internationally recognized state?

How would you respond if your home was being attacked? Would you let someone burn your house down or would you try to prevent it?

At that time, over 2.5 million Serbs suddenly found themselves as second class citizens under pseudo-governments that only 50 years ago tried to exterminate them.

Wouldn't you fight too? (Perhaps you don't understand this as your people were eagerly aligned with the Nazis.)

And if you want to talk hypocrisy, why is it that Croatia (whose citizens were a minority in Yugoslavia) can break away from Yugoslavia but the Serbs in Croatia cannot break away from Croatia?

The same can be asked for Bosnia. . .and Kosovo.

If you Albanians don't want to live with us. . .we don't want to live with you. Yet suddenly you want the northern part of Kosovo where Serbs are the overwhelming majority. Why is that? Thinly veiled land grab?

And Srebrenica? You're going to lecture me about that?

Children. . .Srebrenica was a respond to massacres of over three thousand Serbian civilians; men, women and children in surrounding villages by muslim combatants led by Oric.

These cowards and butchers used the city's safe haven status to launch gruesome attacks against innocent villagers as the Dutch turned a blind eye.

Moreover - even in a time of war - they had the decency to evacuate all muslim women and children before they launched their counterattack against the criminal muslim fighters.

It's amusing how the western media claims that the murder of Serbian civilians in Kosovo post 1999 are justified 'revenge' attacks by Albanians yet the battle of two armies where one is seeking retribution for the crimes committed against its civilians by the other is an act of genocide. . .don't you think so?

Its all nice that heinous war criminals are being arrested. But the Serbs still pursue the destruction of Bosnia i Herzegovina and is still orchestrated from Belgrade Serbia to quasi Srpska entity founded on murder ethnic cleansing. Where do you think its going to lead to a lot of pleasantry's if the Serbs don't drop it. The Serbs are still pursuing the greater Serbia project wholeheartedly again at the expense of their neighbors and peace just like in the 1990s. More with subterfuge now instead of naked murderous aggression if they did NATO and the world would have no quomes dealing with the Serb bully.

hello??!? why do people think there is some mystery here? like the guy below said, the names were not released right away, so you can safely assume that the perpitrators were not Serbs. these disgusting events took place around Zvornik which is 60+% muslim... i mean c'mon, the victims were ROMA and they were executed in a village called HAMZICI... connect the dots...

Lenard you are starting to sound as autistic as Mircea. This is about crimes committed in Kosovo, not about Bosnia, or yet another opportunity seized by a Croat to Serb bash.

Sorry Lenard but you are just participating in what seems to be a national sport in Croatia. Bash all Serbs for Bosnia enough and who knows you might wash the blood away from the Croatian knife which was stuck in the Bosniak back.

Yes, you say but we are not causing problems now... Not through want of trying. That desperate Bosnian Croat clique with support from Zagreb tried their very best to annex Bosnia to fufil part of their dream of Greater Croatia.

I actually have a lot of understanding for the problems Croatia and its people face, but you make yourself very hard to like when you line up with that Serbophobic attitude.

It has taken you that long to see that there will be a Greater Serbia and Bosnia will not exist in the future and it will be at Croats expense too, and you guys can’t do anything about it either but grit you’re teeth and watch. Like all Croats without a hide or memory, calling someone else murderous, perhaps your Ante Pavilic was a saint.

Your President went to Israel and gave a speech at the Holocaust museum, which is worth listening, he wove around and did not directly mention the murderous regime of WW11, but when the Israeli official replied in English it was direct and called Croats fascists, murderous and a few other unkind things to Mesic’s face. Mesic just stood there.

It might be quasi Srpska, but it exists and is recognised whereas there is no quasi Croatia in B&H, there is only Bosniak Federation. In 2 years no Croats in Bosnia and Serbs will make sure of that as well.

Like your Albanian brothers, its always NATO to your rescue, but NATO no care for Croatia except you send Oh! Yes 200 soldiers to Afghanistan to send fear in Taliban and Osama.

This time NATO no touch Serbia, this not 1999. I see know that there is something in all of Serbia’s actions simply because you fear it so much and always NATO this and NATO that. Here is something novel for you Croats, stand on your two feet instead of hiding behind mummies’ apron all the time. My God what you would not give to be like the Serbs, to be able to stand up against the entire world and still survive, when was the last time you guys did that without the Germans or now US backing you?

This is precisely why the Serbian Foreign Minister’s and the President’s talk of the sanctity of international law has fallen and will continue to fall on deaf ears. International law is meant to protect people and the reason why we talk about international law in the first place is because of the horrors of WWII.

In the 90’s the Serbs primarily, but not exclusively conducted a campaign of horrendous acts of violence towards the other peoples of the western Balkans for the sole purpose of gaining more land, and despite having the entire weight of the international law and justice placed on their backs, they never stopped. They tied UN peacekeepers to utility poles, humiliated them and the UN and killed thousands of innocent men in Srebrenica, WHILE the world was shouting “INTERNATIONAL LAW”.

Fast forward to 2009, and the same Serbs claim that because they now have a democratically elected Government, the other people of the Balkans, such as the Bosniaks and the Kosovar Albanians should just “trust” them with their future.

International Law, in the way Serbs understand it, is a joke, it’s a complete distortion of the purpose of International Law.

Can you believe it. These animals were living amongst ordianry people.
This is why I have mentioned earlier that, White Schengen will allow these kind of animals to travel through Europe and settle for sometime next to anybody's house, giving them chances to do horrible things.
And of course, these are in minority that needs to be behind the bars not to represent Serbia.

Nick settle down we don’t even know if the suspects are Serbian, Muslim Bosnian or even Albanian for that matter. The point here is that the Serbian authorities have caught them which is a lot more than the Criminal leadership in Kosovo is doing! And that is why Kosovo will remain the black hole it is today and will continue to get deeper. No free travel throughout Europe, for Kosovo Albanians.

good comment nick. Its stating the obvious

Nick KS,

It is 2009. Are you suggesting that all Serbs should be punished? Should International Law no longer apply? Really, what is your point?

These are terrible crimes that should not go unpunished, so bad that I cannot comprehend it but you're attitude appears to be that all Serbs should suffer forevermore. All that you are doing is showing your own prejudice.

If these people truly committed these crimes then they deserve to be locked up forever. I am glad to see this initiative as we need to hunt down and imprison Serbians that committed these horrendous crimes. It's much better seeing this in our own country rather than an anti-Serbian NATO court in the Hague.

Serbians in general acknowledge crimes and we always have. The difference with our position is that we have always called for universal justice while our opponents always call for selective justice. That is the biggest difference.

I am glad that we generally don't have people directly involved in the Balkan wars as part of the government or opposition. It has allowed us to focus on our country rather than the constant blame games being played in Pristina, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Zagreb. Who really wants alleged war criminals or criminals as their leaders?

"...Fast forward...

(Nick KS, 6 November 2009 11:36).."

>>> No question that the war crimes committed by anyone World-around should be punished swiftly.

Simple major problem of your comment is exactly that..."Fast forward".

Deliberate "Fast forward" to neglect and not mention Serbs as a major victims of Kosovo Albanian, Croatian, Bosnian Muslim extremists in your short and deliberate analysis. Tens of thousands Serbs in the course of ex-Yu wars and millions in XX-th century.

Your "Fast forwarded" truth will bring nothing to the tolerance and reconciliation in the Region, but is clear blind "poetic" speech of hate.

Wow! Really?? No way!
I'm afraid they will have to build some more prison cells.

hang them!

Nik and others,

Like most of the comments that I've read here, your Albanian understanding of the Yugoslav Wars is appalling.

First, the Serbs did not start any war. We responded to acts of aggression against the Yugoslav state.

What right do the Slovenes, Croatians, Bosnian muslims and Albanians have to violently dismantle an internationally recognized state?

How would you respond if your home was being attacked? Would you let someone burn your house down or would you try to prevent it?

At that time, over 2.5 million Serbs suddenly found themselves as second class citizens under pseudo-governments that only 50 years ago tried to exterminate them.

Wouldn't you fight too? (Perhaps you don't understand this as your people were eagerly aligned with the Nazis.)

And if you want to talk hypocrisy, why is it that Croatia (whose citizens were a minority in Yugoslavia) can break away from Yugoslavia but the Serbs in Croatia cannot break away from Croatia?

The same can be asked for Bosnia. . .and Kosovo.

If you Albanians don't want to live with us. . .we don't want to live with you. Yet suddenly you want the northern part of Kosovo where Serbs are the overwhelming majority. Why is that? Thinly veiled land grab?

And Srebrenica? You're going to lecture me about that?

Children. . .Srebrenica was a respond to massacres of over three thousand Serbian civilians; men, women and children in surrounding villages by muslim combatants led by Oric.

These cowards and butchers used the city's safe haven status to launch gruesome attacks against innocent villagers as the Dutch turned a blind eye.

Moreover - even in a time of war - they had the decency to evacuate all muslim women and children before they launched their counterattack against the criminal muslim fighters.

It's amusing how the western media claims that the murder of Serbian civilians in Kosovo post 1999 are justified 'revenge' attacks by Albanians yet the battle of two armies where one is seeking retribution for the crimes committed against its civilians by the other is an act of genocide. . .don't you think so?

im not interested to know the identity / ethinicity of these 5 criminals, whatever they are (yes, even if somehow they were albanian) they should be hanged if they have commited the crimes that they are accussed of.

no human being should suffer that way.

Interesting article and remarks. Seems that people making these remarks are confused and so am I. Knowing from the past experiences, when serbs are arrested, usually, their names are immediately disclosed wether right or wrong, who cares. So we need to wait and see.

From previous knowledge, serbs do not kill romas and knife is not their choice of arms. Figure it for yourself who does, we even seen it on TV. Anyway, who ever done this or any other crime in Balcan civil war, should suffer extreme punishment.

Terrible war crimes! God job from the prosecution and good example to follow...

Its all nice that heinous war criminals are being arrested. But the Serbs still pursue the destruction of Bosnia i Herzegovina and is still orchestrated from Belgrade Serbia to quasi Srpska entity founded on murder ethnic cleansing. Where do you think its going to lead to a lot of pleasantry's if the Serbs don't drop it. The Serbs are still pursuing the greater Serbia project wholeheartedly again at the expense of their neighbors and peace just like in the 1990s. More with subterfuge now instead of naked murderous aggression if they did NATO and the world would have no quomes dealing with the Serb bully.

hello??!? why do people think there is some mystery here? like the guy below said, the names were not released right away, so you can safely assume that the perpitrators were not Serbs. these disgusting events took place around Zvornik which is 60+% muslim... i mean c'mon, the victims were ROMA and they were executed in a village called HAMZICI... connect the dots...

Lenard you are starting to sound as autistic as Mircea. This is about crimes committed in Kosovo, not about Bosnia, or yet another opportunity seized by a Croat to Serb bash.

Sorry Lenard but you are just participating in what seems to be a national sport in Croatia. Bash all Serbs for Bosnia enough and who knows you might wash the blood away from the Croatian knife which was stuck in the Bosniak back.

Yes, you say but we are not causing problems now... Not through want of trying. That desperate Bosnian Croat clique with support from Zagreb tried their very best to annex Bosnia to fufil part of their dream of Greater Croatia.

I actually have a lot of understanding for the problems Croatia and its people face, but you make yourself very hard to like when you line up with that Serbophobic attitude.

Some absurd things being said here:
Nick 'This is precisely why the Serbian Foreign Minister’s and the President’s talk of the sanctity of international law has fallen and will continue to fall on deaf ears...'

What the fact that these men has been apprehended and their crimes documented by the Serbian war crimes prosecutor is evidence of Serbia not respecting international law??? Now these crimes are unspeakable and if true they should lock away these men and thrown away the key, but the fact that they are being prosecuted does not show Serbia to be a lawless state.

What is does show is that paramilitaries were given a free hand during that war and they committed war crimes (as I've always contended, with the odd exception).

Olf you are suggesting what, that Serbia should not get white schengen because war crimes were committed in the war? Well that disqualfies all participants from schengen don't you think? And quite frankly what makes European lives so precious? These men should not be walking the streets of Belgrade, Pristina or Zagreb either. We have the same right to safety as EU countries. You made that connection, I can't understand why.

No, I commend the War Crimes prosecutor for bringing this case and hope that as many war criminals as possible can be put behind bars - where they belong.

It has taken you that long to see that there will be a Greater Serbia and Bosnia will not exist in the future and it will be at Croats expense too, and you guys can’t do anything about it either but grit you’re teeth and watch. Like all Croats without a hide or memory, calling someone else murderous, perhaps your Ante Pavilic was a saint.

Your President went to Israel and gave a speech at the Holocaust museum, which is worth listening, he wove around and did not directly mention the murderous regime of WW11, but when the Israeli official replied in English it was direct and called Croats fascists, murderous and a few other unkind things to Mesic’s face. Mesic just stood there.

It might be quasi Srpska, but it exists and is recognised whereas there is no quasi Croatia in B&H, there is only Bosniak Federation. In 2 years no Croats in Bosnia and Serbs will make sure of that as well.

Like your Albanian brothers, its always NATO to your rescue, but NATO no care for Croatia except you send Oh! Yes 200 soldiers to Afghanistan to send fear in Taliban and Osama.

This time NATO no touch Serbia, this not 1999. I see know that there is something in all of Serbia’s actions simply because you fear it so much and always NATO this and NATO that. Here is something novel for you Croats, stand on your two feet instead of hiding behind mummies’ apron all the time. My God what you would not give to be like the Serbs, to be able to stand up against the entire world and still survive, when was the last time you guys did that without the Germans or now US backing you?