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Belgrade, 30 May (AKI) - Serbia’s special prosecutor for war crimes on Wednesday ordered the detention of twelve people on suspicion of having committed war crimes against Croatian civilians in October 1991, during the war following Croatia's secession from former Yugoslavia. The prosecution said in a statement that during two and a half years of investigations more than 50 people have been questioned "and extensive material evidence has been collected". It said that four members of the former Yugoslav Army, civilians and members of a paramilitary group “Dusan Silni” were suspected of “torturing, inhumane treatment and killing 70 civilians” in...

Belgrade, 2 July 06. (Tanjug) – The Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija announced that UNMIK Chief Soren Jesen-Petersen “leaving Kosovo in an armored vehicle”, showed that the international community did not fulfill its basic task for seven years, such as the creation of elementary security conditions of free living and freedom of movement. “Petersen’s earlier statement, stated that he is leaving Kosovo for private reasons. Before his departure he clearly stated slogans on behalf of Albanian lobbyists who use all means in the fight for independence of the Serbian southern province”, states the Center at the Sunday announcement. Coordination...

<p>Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, the U.N. tribunal said Saturday. He was 65.</p>

THE HAGUE -- Friday – In the continuation of Serbia-Montenegro’s defence against charges of genocide filed by Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbia-Montenegro legal team argued that the war in Bosnia was not a result of outside aggression, but rather, a civil war between three ethnic communities. “In no case was that war an effort by Serbia to destroy an entire ethnic group.” Serbia-Montenegro’s chief defence attorney, Radoslav Stojanovic, said, adding that during the war, over 20,000 Muslims lived freely in Belgrade. He also cited former UNPROFOR commander Michael Rose, who writes that the war in Bosnia was not “an invasion of one...

The Srebrenica operation was planned so that Bosnian Serb forces were positioned in a shape of a horseshoe, thus intentionally leaving space for the Muslim army and civilians to retreat North, North-West towards Tuzla. The distance of 36km and the configuration of the terrain are such that any man in average physical condition can cross it on foot. The military operation was conducted in this manner with the intention of minimizing the number of casualties, since the Muslims had brought in substantial military forces. If the Muslim forces had been hermetically enclosed, a violent fight would have ensued in which...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 was an act of aggression rather than an attempt to save ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov told Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial Monday. Ryzhkov was the first high profile witness to testify for Milosevic since the former Yugoslav president won back the right to lead his own defense earlier this month. Ryzhkov, like dozens of other witnesses, had initially refused to testify after the court appointed two lawyers in September to defend the former Serb strongman to prevent his ill health causing more delays to the...

10 November 2004 -- Bosnian Serb authorities today apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serbian forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. A statement posted on the government's official web page said "the government of Republika Srpska sympathizes with the pain of relatives of the Srebrenica victims and expresses sincere regrets and apologies over the tragedy which has happened to them." The Bosnian Serb government accepted last month a local report by a special investigative commission acknowledging that almost 8,000 Muslims were killed in the massacre, in...

A BOSNIAN Serb commission investigating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre presented a list today with the names of more than 7000 Muslim victims, admitting for the first time the scale of Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. "I am confirming that the number (of victims) is higher than 7000. I cannot reveal the exact figures. It is up to the government to do it," an official said on condition of anonymity. In June the Bosnian Serb government admitted for the first time that Serb forces had committed the massacre and tried to cover up the crime, but it avoided giving...

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - Bosnian Serb authorities admitted for the first time that more than 7,000 Muslims had been slaughtered by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. "I am confirming that the number (of victims) is higher than 7,000. I cannot reveal the exact figures. It is up to the government to do it," an official from a special investigative commission told AFP Thursday on condition of anonymity. In June the Bosnian Serb government admitted for the first time that Serb forces had committed the massacre and tried to cover up...

BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 30 - A senior American diplomat expressed frustration on Thursday that Serbia had yet to turn over a leading war crimes suspect months after the election of a new president who had promised "full cooperation" with the international tribunal at The Hague. Marc Grossman, the under secretary of state for political affairs, said the Serbian government had made no progress toward arresting the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, Gen. Ratko Mladic. General Mladic was indicted in 1995 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from his actions during the 1992-95 conflict...