Bosnia arrests 3 Muslim wartime commanders

SARAJEVO:Bosnian police on Tuesday arrested three Muslim men for war crimes against ethnic Serb civilians during the country’s 1990s conflict when they were serving as police and army commanders, a prosecutor said.
Two of those arrested -- Esef Huric and Ibro Merkez -- are suspected of involvement in the detention of about 100 ethnic Serbs in "inhumane conditions" in the eastern region of Gorazde, said a statement from Bosnia’s prosecutor for war crimes.
The civilian detainees, including women and children, were held for several months in such conditions, due to which two of them died, according to the statement.
Huric, 57, is still a police official in the area, while Merkez, 73, is a lawyer. They were both police commanders at the time the war crimes took place in 1992 and 1993.
The third suspect, 55-year-old Ahmed Sejdic, served as a commander of Muslim forces and is suspected of taking part in the expulsion of Serb civilians in the areas of Gorazde and nearby Rudo and Visegrad, also in 1992 and 1993.
Several people were killed in these operations, the statement said. Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war between its ethnic Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives.
A United Nations tribunal in the Netherlands tries top political and military officials charged with genocide and war crimes committed during the conflict, while local courts deal with lower-profile cases.
Out of some 180 people convicted for war crimes by Bosnian courts so far, the majority have been ethnic Serbs, while 45 are Muslims.