JURIST - Paper Chase: Three former Bosnian Serb police indicted for Srebrenica massacre

[JURIST] The Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) war crimes court [official website] confirmed [press release] on Monday that three former Bosnian Serb policemen have been indicted on charges of genocide for their alleged roles in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archives]. Dusko Jevic served as Deputy Commander of the Special Police Brigade, while Mendeljev Duric and Goran Markovic served as Jahorina Training Center Squad Commanding Officers. According to the court, the three former policemen:

commanded their units, acting individually and in concert with other participants, planned, ordered, incited and took part in the realization of the systemic and joint criminal act. The accused allegedly during the period from 10 July until 19 July 1995, as co-perpetrators, inflicted severe bodily and mental injuries to a group of Bosniaks, committed killings of male members of the group of Bosniaks and forcefully transferred women, children and elderly persons from the UN protected zone Srebrenica in order to completely exterminate national, ethnic and religious group of Bosniaks.

The three men were arrested [JURIST report] in late 2009.

Last week, the US extradited [Reuters report] to BiH Bosnian Serb Nedjo Ikonic, a former commander of a special police brigade, who will also be tried by the BiH war crimes court for his role in the Srebrenica massacre. Earlier this month, police in BiH arrested [JURIST report] Ratko Dronjak and Dragan Rodic, two former Bosnian Serb detention camp guards who were allegedly responsible for the death of about 50 civilians and Bosnian soldiers during the Bosnian civil war. The BiH war crimes court was set up in the 2005 to relieve the caseload of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], and is authorized to try lower-level war crime suspects. The court delivered its first sentences [JURIST report] against war crimes suspects from Yugoslavia's violent ethnic conflicts of the 1990s in July 2008, convicting seven of genocide for their involvement in killings committed at the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] prison camp. The ICTY retains jurisdiction over high-level war crimes allegations, such as those against Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] and General Ratko Mladic [ICTY materials].