Former Bosnian army general indicted for aiding genocide in Srebrenica
Reuters | Posted: December 31, 2019 5:26 PM | Last Updated: December 31, 2019
Milomir Savcic, accused of atrocities in 1995 massacre, hasn't been detained
A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday indicted a Bosnian Serb former army general for taking part in the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica that's been described as genocide by two international court
Milomir Savcic, 60, is accused of commanding the Bosnian Serb Army headquarters 65 Protection Motorised Regiment, which included a military police battalion, to capture, kill and bury adult Muslim Bosniaks from the UN-protected eastern enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Bosnian Serb forces led by Gen. Ratko Mladic attacked Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, separated men from women and children, and killed about 8,000 Muslims, who were then buried in mass graves.
The Srebrenica massacre is regarded as Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War.
Savcic consciously helped Mladic and Col. Ljubisa Beara, as well as other commanders of the Drina Corps and Zvornik Brigade, which executed the massacre, to destroy the Muslim men as an ethnic group in the area, the prosecutor said in a statement.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) jailed both Mladic and Beara for life over the Srebrenica massacre.
"Savcic is accused of planning, commanding and supervising the activities … during the capture and detention of several hundred men at several locations in the Nova Kasaba area, and their illegal arrest, torture and murder," the statement said.
"Savcic is accused … of committing the criminal act of helping in genocide," the statement added.
Savcic, who is is not in detention, is president of the Bosnian Serb Republic's war veterans' organization. He holds Bosnian and Serbian citizenship.