Bosnia Charges Serb Ex-Policemen with Killing Bosniak, Croat Civilians

The Bosnian state prosecution on Wednesday charged Milorad Kotur and Dusan Culibrk with wartime crimes including the killing of detainees from the Omarska prison camp.

“The accused are charged with the murder of 44 detainees from the Omarska camp, committed at Donji Dubovik [near the town of Bosanska Krupa] in the summer of 1992,” the prosecution said in a statement.

They are accused of directly participating in taking away and subsequently killing the Bosniak and Croat civilians in July 1992 as members of the reservist police force at the Public Security Station in Bosanska Krupa.

The prosecution also accused Kotur and Culibrk of intercepting a group of seven Bosniak civilians in Donji Dubovik who were going from Prijedor towards Bihac and killing them.

The state prosecution on Wednesday also indicted six people for crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in the Zvornik area.

The suspects – Semsudin Muminovic, alias Zukov, Mujo Muratovic, Rasim Omerovic, alias Masni, Asim Alic, Fadil Mujic and Ismet Memic, alias Iko – are accused of participating in a widespread and systematic attack on the Serb civilian population in the Zvornik area.

The prosecution said that during the attack, ten civilians were killed, and three prisoners of war, members of the Bosnian Serb Army, were captured, tortured and killed.

Muminovic is accused as the commander of the Municipal Headquarters of the Territorial Defence force in Zvornik, and later the commander of the 206th Brigade of the Bosnian Army, Muratovic as the commander of the Setic Company and Omerovic as the commander of the military police. Alic is accused as the commander of the Public Security Station in Sapna, and Mujic as the chief of the police station in Sapna.

The prosecution alleges that they knew about the crime committed by their subordinates but failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent killings and inhumane treatment or to prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

Memic is also accused of personally participating in the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war.

In a third indictment filed by the state prosecution on Wednesday, former police officer Nedjeljko Popovic was accused of committing crimes against Bosniak and Croat civilians in July 1992, when he was chief of the Public Security Station in the town of Mrkonjic Grad.

He was charged with allowing police officers, soldiers and others to have access to civilians who were being illegally detained, and to beat, abuse and torture them.

The prosecution said that the civilians, among whom were minors and women, were being detained at the Public Security Station in Mrkonjic Grad, as well as in buildings owned by companies in Bjelajce and in Podbrdo.

As a result of several days of torture and abuse, one detainee died and a number of others suffered permanent and severe injuries.

Popovic was charged with failing to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent and punish the perpetrators.

The prosecution said that Popovic is a citizen of both Bosnia and Serbia, and now lives in the Serbian city of Pancevo.

All three indictments have been sent to the Bosnian state court for confirmation.