War crimes Archives

Former Bosnian Serb officer Milomir Savcic, who is on trial for allegedly assisting the Srebrenica genocide, was remanded in custody for breaking a court order by speaking publicly about new legislation banning genocide denial.

Croatian officials reacted indignantly after state prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina reportedly asked Zagreb if its judiciary can prosecute Croatian wartime generals for crimes allegedly committed during the Croatian Army’s Operation Flash in 1995.

A match in the ethnic Bosniak-majority city of Novi Pazar was temporarily halted because visiting fans of Belgrade club Partizan were chanting slogans celebrating the Srebrenica massacres and Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic.

In the absence of legal cooperation with Serbia, Kosovo has changed its legislation to make it easier to try suspects in their absence - but sceptics say this doesn’t necessarily mean that more war criminals will go to jail.

Serbian activists are unsurprised by a municipality's decison to award a former general sentenced to 14 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo, calling it part of the ruling party's strategy of wooing nationalist voters.

After Croatia’s victory over rebel Serbs in Operation Storm in August 1995, President Franjo Tudjman set off on a triumphalist cross-country railway journey, staging celebratory rallies along the way - with harsh words for the refugees who fled.

Serb representatives in Croatia and NGOs from both Croatia and Serbia have started a six-day commemoration for the victims of the 1995 army operation that reunited Croatia but also cost many lives.

At his first press conference, the new High Representative in Bosnia said there was no excuse for glorifying war criminals and he had not come to Bosnia to ’drink coffee’ but to move things forward.

This week, while Croatia celebrates its victory in 1995’s Operation Storm and Serbia mourns the victims, nationalists on both sides will be seeking to profit politically from one of the war’s most traumatic events, says sociologist Marijana Stojcic.