Indictment against Mirko Vrucinic Filed

As announced by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, Vrucinic, a former Chief of the Public Safety Station in Sanski Most and member of the local Crisis Committee, is charged with having participated in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of persecuting the non-Serb population.

Under the unconfirmed indictment, Vrucinic is charged with having commanded and co-ordinated police forces, which guarded detention facilities, where several thousands of Bosniak and Croat civilians were detained following an attack on non-Serb villages, in the period from April to the end of 1992.

“Victims were tortured and abused in several detention facilities, which were controlled by police. More than 50 of them were either killed or taken in an unknown direction. They have been missing since,” the State Prosecution announced.

According to the Prosecution of BiH, several hundreds of victims were tortured, beaten up, abused in humiliating ways and held in inhumane conditions, which resulted in the death of many detainees, while about 1,000 unlawfully detained victims were transferred to Manjaca detention camp.

The Prosecution of BiH alleges that more than 20,000 persons were forcibly deported from the Sanski Most area and that police forces under Vrucinic’s command participated in the deportations.

“This is one of the most extensive indictments for war crimes in the Sanski Most area, which covers murders and the forcible disappearances of tens of Bosniak and Croat victims from that area,” the State Prosecution says, adding that this investigation was referred to it by The Hague Tribunal.

The indictment has been filed with the Court of BiH for confirmation.