Bosnia Arrests Five More War Crimes Suspects As Sweep Continues

The Investigation and Protection Agency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SIPA) says five former soldiers have been arrested in Sarajevo for committing crimes against Serb civilians who were prisoners of war between 1992 and 1994 during the Bosnian War.

SIPA said in a statement on December 7 that at least eight civilians were killed and more than 100 injured by the five soldiers, who are accused of unlawful imprisonment, torture, abuse, forced labor, and inflicting bodily and mental harm, along with murder.

The imprisoned civilians were being held illegally in wartime prison camps in a former school and in another partially built building in Sarajevo.

"The accused are charged with the murder of at least eight civilians who were imprisoned. Among the suspects are the direct perpetrators of the killings," the statement said.

It added that Serbian police were part of the operation as some of the victims now live in Serbia.

More than 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian conflict, which ended with a U.S.-brokered agreement that divided the country and its administration largely along ethnic lines among Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

This is the third operation to arrest war crimes suspects conducted by SIPA in the past two weeks.

On December 3, seven people were arrested and charged with participating in the killing of 22 Bosniaks, including seven children, in the village of Balatun nearly 30 years ago. At the time, the three suspects were members of the Serb police.

Four days before that, the agency arrested nine people in the northwestern town of Novi Grad who are suspected of crimes against humanity.

More than 100,000 people died in the war in Bosnia among the Bosniaks -- who are mostly Muslims --Serbs and Croats.

Bosnian Serbs besieged the capital, Sarajevo, during the conflict, but many Serbs also remained in the city and dozens were killed by Bosniak fighters who were in control.

Ethnic relations in Bosnia remain tense years after the war ended in 1995 in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement that created two entities within Bosnia -- one Bosnian Serb and the other Bosniak-Croat.