Bosnian Croat Fighter Charged With Mostar Crimes
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Milicevic was charged in absentia on Monday with having taken Bosniak civilians from the Heliodrom detention camp in Mostar to do forced labour and to be used as human shields from July 1993 to March 1994.
According to the prosecution, as commander of the Benko Penavic anti-terrorist unit of the Croatian Defence Council, Milicevic demanded that prisoners be taken out and forced to work in situations where they could be killed or injured.
“Several times, prisoners were forced to build trenches, fortifications and carry bags of sand on the front lines between the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defence Council,” said the prosecution in a statement.
In the course of doing forced labour, the prosecution added, five civilians were killed and 20 injured, while five others were abused by members of Milicevic’s unit.
Milicevic has Croatian citizenship and lives in Croatia.
Croatia does not extradite its citizens to other regional countries for war crimes prosecutions, which means Milicevic will not be sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina to stand trial.
However, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have a protocol on cooperation in war crimes cases which enables the two countries to exchange cases and evidence for prosecution to the country where suspects have citizenship, meaning that he could theoretically face trial in Croatia.
