SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian police on Thursday arrested eight former Bosnian Serb army commanders and soldiers in the 1992 wartime killing of about 100 Bosniaks, including women, children and older people, authorities said.
The eight are facing charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes against war prisoners, Bosnian security agency SIPA said.
A statement from the Bosnian prosecutor’s office said the arrests relate to the 1992 killings in the southern Bosnian region of Nevesinje of around 100 Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslims.
The victims included babies and small children from 15 days old to 2 years old, as well as dozens of women and older people. Entire families were killed, along with other victims, the prosecutor’s statement said.
The remains of 49 people have been recovered so far while the search is underway for the remains of at least 47 more, the statement added.
Thursday’s arrests came after similar actions were conducted in previous weeks also targeting suspected war criminals.
More than 100,000 people were killed during the war in Bosnia between the country’s Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats. The war erupted after Bosnian Serbs rebelled against the country’s independence from the former Yugoslavia and took hold of large swaths of land, killing and expelling Bosniaks and Croats.
The conflict ended in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in 1995, but Bosnia is still struggling to recover amid lingering ethnic tensions.
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