Bosnian Serb brought before UN tribunal on war crimes after ten years at large

A Bosnian Serb military police sub-commander accused of a range of war crimes, including gang rape and torture of women, has been brought before the United Nations criminal tribunal on the Balkan violence of the early 1990’s after ten years on the run.

Dragan Zelenovic, who was transferred over the weekend from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo to the International Criminal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, had been arrested in August 2005 by Russian security forces who, instead of handing him over to the Tribunal, expelled him from their territory before he was arrested by Bosnian authorities.

Indicted along with several other Bosnian Serbs in June 1996, Mr. Zelenovic is alleged to have performed a leadership role in crimes that followed the Serbian takeover of the town of Foca, in south-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1992 when military police, accompanied by local and other soldiers, started arresting Muslim and Croat residents. During the arrests many civilians were killed, beaten, or subjected to sexual assault.

As Muslim women, children and the elderly were detained in houses, apartments and motels in Foca and in surrounding villages, many were subjected to humiliating and degrading conditions, brutal beatings and sexual assault, including rape, according to the indictment. Several woman were detained in houses and apartments used as brothels, operated by groups of mostly paramilitary soldiers.

A date for Mr. Zelenovic’s initial appearance before the Tribunal will be announced shortly, a UN spokesman said.