Serb officers accused of Srebrenica genocide

Allegations of genocide against former Serbian military officers filed by the Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade have been received by Serbian war crimes prosecutors.

The law centre, HLC, has accused the officers of being responsible for the deaths of more than 1,800 civilians in Srebrenica, east Bosnia, after the fall of the town in July 1995.

Natasa Kandic, the director of HLC, told Radio Free Europe that Serbia had all the necessary resources to prosecute genocide committed in Srebrenica in 1995.

Kandic said: “Some of the former members of the 10th detachment of VRS are in Serbia.

“We consider that a key witness against Pelemis is Marko Boskic, who recently pleaded guilty in the front of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and agreed to testify against other indictees.”

The war crimes prosecution in Belgrade said that they were working with the Sarajevo war crimes prosecution on the investigation, broadcaster B92 reported.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed on Friday that France Kos and three other former VRS members of 10th detachment has been indicted for genocide in Srebrenica.

The HLC’s complaints, which Belgrade prosecutors on Friday confirmed they had received, include Petar Salapura, the former head of army intelligence at the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, and his deputy, Radoslav Jankovic; Milorad Pelemis, Mile Petrovic and Radoslav Kremenovic, commanders at 10th sabotage detachment at VRS and Franc Kos, the commander of the Bijeljina unit at the same detachment.

Also on the list were some former police and military members, as well as officials, from the Drina corps of VRS.

More than 8,000 people were killed by members of VRS at different locations across the city after it fell.

Ratko Mladic was indicted by the Tribunal in The Hague in 1995, but remains on the run.

Marko Boskic pleaded guilty in June this year and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In April he was deported in US after found guilty for giving false information to immigration authorities about his participation in the war in Bosnia.

The HLC was founded in 1992 by Natasa Kandic as a human rights non-governmental organisation with the aim to document the human rights violations perpetrated across the former Yugoslavia.