Bosnian Army Wartime Commander Naser Oric Arrested

Oric was arrested at the border between Switzerland and France on Wednesday, on the basis of a warrant issued by Serbia last year.

According to the information available so far, Oric is suspected of committing war crimes against Bosnian Serb civilians in 1992 in the village of Zalajze near Srebrenica. The crimes allegedly include killings and looting.

The alleged crimes took place before the 1995 attack by the Bosnian Serb army on Srebrenica, when more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed, a crime later defined as genocide by international and domestic courts.

Oric was acquitted of war crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica area by the Hague Tribunal in 2008, when the court ruled that he did not have control over the Bosnian Army which committed the crime.

The verdict angered Belgrade, and Serbia’s national council for cooperation with the international court said at the time that it “cannot contribute to either achieving justice and truth or to regional reconciliation”.

Oric has previously denied any wrongdoing and accused Serbia of hounding him without any justification.

“I was prosecuted in The Hague, where I said everything and where I was released,” he said in January 2014.

Nedeljko Mitrovic, president of the Association of Families of Captives, Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians in Republika Srpska, where Srebrenica is located, said he hoped that the arrest of Oric was the beginning of a process that would deliver “truth for Serb families”.

“I hope there will be justice and he will face the charges,” Mitrovic said.

But Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of the Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves association, told BIRN that she believed that Oric’s innocence had already been proved at the UN-backed court.

“Oric was in The Hague, and if he is guilty, why did the Tribunal acquit him?” she asked.

The Serbian authorities have previously issued arrest warrants for former Bosnian army general Jovan Divjak and high-ranking politician Ejup Ganic, accusing them of war crimes in Sarajevo. The men were arrested by Great Britain and Austria respectively, but both states refused to extradite them to Serbia, claiming the warrants were political.

Ganic told BIRN that the warrant to arrest Oric was also politically motivated.

“Serbia has always believed that all those that were against Slobodan Milosevic’s regime should be arrested,” said Ganic.

Divjak said meanwhile that Oric had already been tried and found to be not guilty.

“I am surprised. Why was he arrested? The Hague Tribunal dealt with this issue already,” Divjak told BIRN.

The Serbian war crimes prosecution said it has yet to receive confirmation that Oric was arrested, but confirmed that it had a standing warrant for the former Bosnian Army general.

The Serbian justice ministry told BIRN meanwhile that it could not confirm when or if it will ask for the extradition of Oric after he was arrested in Switzerland.

Spokeperson Milica Vuckovic said that the ministry does not even have official confirmation of arrest and that all her information from the media. She said that an official statement will be issued tomorrow.

Oric’s lawyer Leila Covic said the warrant was issued at the start of last year, but claimed that Bosnia and Herzegovina had appealed against it and so it should have been suspended and the former commander should not have been arrested.

“We cannot understand why the warrant was not removed because of the appeal,” Covic said.

However the Bosnian justice ministry could not confirm that it launched an appeal.