JURIST - Paper Chase: Srebrenica video from Milosevic trial leads to arrest of eight former Serbian soldiers

[JURIST] Serbian officials announced Thursday that eight former Serb paramilitary soldiers have been arrested after a video showing them killing six Bosnian Muslim youths in Srebrenica [BBC timeline] was viewed at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday [ICTY proceedings video] at The Hague. The 1995 video was later shown on news broadcasts on at least two Serbian television channels. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [Wikipedia profile] called it a "disgraceful crime against civilians" before ordering the arrests of the soldiers. The swift response from Kostunica comes after Serbia has been subjected to international criticism for not acting to curb civilian admiration of suspected war criminals; European leaders in particular have made it known that Serbian hopes of accession to the European Union by 2010 may hinge on greater co-operation [JURIST report] with international criminal prosecutions. At the news conference in Belgrade Thursday ICTY war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte called the swift operation "brilliant" and praised the Serbian authorities for their initiative. Reuters has more.

[Editor's note: the Milosevic prosecution's courtroom presentation of the video is available on JURIST's Monitor here via the ICTY and Domovina.net]

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