Bosnian Serb Soldiers Indicted for Kozarac Violence

The Bosnian prosecution charged the three ex-servicemen on Friday with participating in a wide-ranging and systematic attack by the Bosnian Serb Army, police force and paramilitaries, aimed at persecuting Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Prijedor area from May until July 1992.

“They are charged with participating in the persecution of Bosniak civilians and illegally searching their homes in the Kozarac area. They forced them to move towards the Kozarusa bus station, from where the civilians were transported to the Trnopolje [detention] camp,” the indictment said.

The male prisoners were illegally detained in the Trnopolje, Omarska and Keraterm camps, while women, children and elderly were forcibly expelled from the Prijedor area, it said.

The three men are also charged with killing eight civilians who were hiding in the ruins of a house in Kozarac in 1992.

“They took the civilians out of the ruins and killed them with firearms. The victims were young, and the youngest was 17,” the indictment said.

According to the indictment, Rade Vlasenko and another Bosnian Serb soldier also took a boy from Trnopolje camp in July 1992 who was later taken to do forced labour and killed.

The indictment will be forwarded to the Bosnian court for confirmation.