Eurasia Press & News
The State Prosecution in Montenegro has indicted seven people on charges of war crimes in Bukovica, in the Sandzak region of Montenegro.
The indictment was filed at the High Court in Bijelo Polje with a request for the arrest and detention of all seven indictees.
The group is indicted for abuse, causing severe suffering, jeopardising health, intimidating and creating an atmosphere for forced emigration of Muslims from the area of Bukovica in 1992 and 1993.
Indictees are former members of the Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, and of Montenegro’s interior ministry.
Bukovica is an area in the northwest Montenegrin region of Sandzak, and includes 37 villages, most which were home to majority Muslim populations.
Human rights groups claim that at least eight people were killed and several hundred civilians expelled from the area of Bukovica during the Bosnian war, while hundreds of their houses were destroyed.
In 2003, the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center (Fond za humanitarno pravo) published a dossier on Bukovica. According to the report, prior to May 1993 Muslim homes were searched for alleged illegal weapons, families robbed, and men beaten and threatened with death if they did not leave their houses.
