Trial of Bosnian Serb paramilitaries transferred from UN tribunal
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announced today that it is referring the case of a Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader and his cousin who are accused of burning to death scores of Muslim women, children and elderly men in 1992.
The trial of Milan Lukic, leader of a paramilitary unit known as the White Eagles or Avengers, and Sredoje Lukic, a member of the same unit, will now take place within Bosnia and Herzegovina’s court system.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which sits in The Hague, has so far transferred nine accused to Bosnia and Herzegovina for trial, along with two accused to Croatia and one to Serbia.
Milan Lukic was taken into custody by the ICTY in February last year after having been transferred from Argentina, where he was arrested in 2005 after nearly seven years on the run.
Mr. Lukic and his cousin face multiple charges relating to the activities of their paramilitary unit, which prosecutors say worked with local police and military units to exact a reign of terror over Muslims in the area around Višegrad in south-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.
The Lukic cousins are accused of murdering about 70 Muslim women, children and elderly men by barricading them in one room of a house in Višegrad, setting the house on fire and then firing automatic weapons at those who tried to escape through the windows.
In a separate incident, the two men are accused of murdering about 70 other Muslims in the nearby village of Bikavac by forcing the victims into a house, barricading all exits and then throwing in several explosive devices.
The cousins are also accused of beating Muslim men who had been detained in a camp at a military barracks in Višegrad.
Milan Lukic is charged separately with several other counts of murder in which he is alleged to have led groups of Muslim men to the bank of the Drina River near Višegrad and then killed them.