Balkans

A three-metre statue of Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Sarajevo at a ceremony attended by thousands of Catholics and other citizens of Sarajevo.

People in the Brcko District marked the anniversary of the deaths of around 100 civilians who were killed in April 1992 when a bridge over the River Sava was blown up by Serb forces.

Former Bosnian Serb soldiers Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic have been indicted by the state prosecution for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in the Kotor Varos area in 1992.

The EU rule-of-law mission to Kosovo has extended the detention on remand of the suspected drugs baron Naser Kelmendi.

A witness said that Bosnian Croat ex-fighter Indira Kameric, accused of abusing prisoners in Bosanski Brod, helped to assault a detainee and stamped on him with high-heeled shoes.

A witness said that he saw Nedzad Hodzic, one of two Bosniak ex-servicemen on trial for wartime abuse of prisoners on Mount Igman, beating other detainees with a table leg.

The defence lawyer for Edin Dzeko, a former member of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Squad, said he was not guilty of executing six Croats in Trusina in 1993.

The Bosnian parliament’s House of Peoples on Tuesday confirmed the dismissal of Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic, citing his responsibility for the unrest in February.

A witness accused former Croatian Defence Council fighter Perica Adzic, on trial for mistreating prisoners of war at a school in Zepce, of threatening him and the child with a pistol.

The proposed new international protocol on documenting and investigating wartime sexual violence will utilise Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 20 years of experience in dealing with sensitive cases.