Eurasia Press & News

More than two decades since it was burned down in the Bosnian Serb siege of the city, the Vijecnica, or City Hall, is preparing to reopen this summer.

A court in Bijeljina sentenced former Bosnian Serb Army officer Velimir Popovic to five years in jail for violently abusing prisoners of war at the Ugljevik detention camp.

The vice-president of the Serbian Progressive Party said that it would not forget the support it has received from Republika Srpska’s opposition Serb Democratic Party.

A witness told the war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb ex-fighter Dragan Sekaric how his wife was killed while trying to escape an attack on the village of Kokino Selo near Gorazde in May 1992.

The international court turned down former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s request to quash the genocide and war crime charges against him midway through his trial.

After the EU Foreign Affairs Council discussed Bosnia on Monday, it said separatist rhetoric must go and politicians need to focus more on economic development and jobs.

Four ex-members of the Croatian Defence Council, whose arrests sparked a protest in Kiseljak, are accused of the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war in 1993.

Former Croatian Defence Council fighter Nikola Maric is accused of involvement in the detentions, persecution and killings of Bosniaks in the Prozor area in 1992 and 1993.

Former fighter Milun Kornjaca, accused of the imprisonment, torture and murder of Bosniaks in the Cajnice area in 1992, told the court that he had nothing to do with any of the crimes.

Former Bosnian Army serviceman Zehrudin Scuk was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a female civilian in the village of Krkaca near Jablanica in 1993.