An organization representing people who were held in prisoner-of-war camps in Kljuc in northwestern Bosnia during the Bosnian War has demanded that the Foreign Ministry of Bosnia-Herzegovina send a letter of protest to Russia over the granting of citizenship to a former officer of the Yugoslav Army who is wanted in Bosnia for war crimes.
Ratko Samac is one of 44 foreign nationals who were granted citizenship under a decree signed on January 9 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This is a shame, and a diplomatic note must be sent to Russia,” Mehmed Begic of the organization of war prisoners from Kljuc told RFE/RL on January 10. “We ask who [Russia] gave citizenship to and on what merit -- that he killed innocent people in the war?"
Samac has resided in Russia since 1999, according to Russian media reports that RFE/RL could not independently confirm. Russia has refused to extradite him to Sarajevo despite requests in 2015 and 2018. Moscow rejected those requests citing Samac's poor health.
Samac has been accused of committing war crimes in Kljuc in the early 1990s. The accusations stem from an investigation in 2013 by a court in Bihac in northwestern Bosnia into alleged war crimes against civilians in Kljuc.
During the expulsion of the non-Serb population of Kljuc in 1992 more than 150 Bosniak civilians were killed, and some were illegally detained and beaten, according to judicial institutions in Bosnia. An arrest warrant for Samac was issued in 2015, the court told RFE/RL.
Samac went to Russia for medical treatment in Kurgan in the southern Urals in 1999. He was arrested there in 2016 on the basis of the arrest warrant issued by Bosnia, the Russian news outlet Sputnik reported at the time. Sputnik also reported that Samac's temporary residence permit was extended in 2015 -- the same year that the arrest warrant was issued -- until 2020. RFE/RL could not independently verify the Sputnik reports.