Bosnian Army Ex-General Arrested for Shelling Town
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Former Bosnian Army general Ramiz Drekovic was arrested in Sarajevo on suspicion of committing a war crime by ordering the ‘indiscrimate’ shelling of the Serb-majority town of Kalinovik in 1995.
State Investigation and Protection Agency officers arrested former general Ramiz Drekovic on Wednesday on suspicion of committing a war crime against civilians by ordering artillery attacks on the town of Kalinovik in 1995.
The state prosecutor’s office said it is suspected that Drekovic, as the commander of the Bosnian Army’s Fourth Corps, breached the provisions of the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians during wartime.
“The suspect is charged with issuing a direct, strictly confidential order to artillery units in the wider Konjic municipality area to carry out the indiscriminate shelling of the town of Kalinovik, inhabited by a population of Serb ethnicity, in the spring of 1995,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The Bosnian Army used heavy artillery to repeatedly shell Kalinovik on Drekovic’s orders in May and June 1995, the prosecution said.
“Due to the explosion of the shells, a child aged 15 was killed, and more children and adults were seriously or lightly wounded, and the shelling caused the large-scale destruction of property and buildings,” it added.
Drekovic will be interviewed at the prosecutor’s office, after which it will be decided whether or not he will be remanded in custody.
