Croatian Serb arrested for war crimes

Veritas Center Director Savo Štrbac said that Stanko Kovačević, suspected of having committed war crimes in Croatia, was arrested in Podgorica.

Police arrested Kovačević on Friday according to an Interpol warrant, which was issued by Interpol in Zagreb. He is currently in custody pending extradition, Štrbac said.

He said that Kovačević, along with a group of 30 citizens of the village of Ervink near Knin, were convicted in 1992 to ten years of prison and that international warrants for their arrests were filed in 2001.

Of the 30 persons, five have been arrested and extradited to Croatia, Štrbac said, adding that four have been released and that the other one is in the middle of a retrial.

Štrbac said that Kovačević came to Serbia with his family after the Croatian military’s Storm operations, and that he received Serbian citizenship.

Štrbac said that this is the first time a Serb has been arrested in Montenegro according to a Croatian warrant.

He said that a total of 80 Serbs from Croatia have been arrested according to international warrants, 24 of which were extradited to Croatia, and half of which were freed after further investigations or repeat court processes.

“This proves how unfounded the indictments were,” Štrbac said.

According to the data of the Veritas Center, some 2,000 Serbia were tried in Croatia for war crimes and over 1,400 warrants were issued.