SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Prosecutors in Bosnia have charged 10 men over a 1993 atrocity in which 20 civilians were dragged off a train and killed, an official said on Monday.
In a statement, the Prosecutor's Office said the suspects had been charged with abduction, inhumane treatment and killings that amounted to war crimes against civilians.
The alleged victims – all Bosnian Muslims apart from a Croat and an Arab – were taken off a train at Strpci, a Bosnian town close to the Serbian border, on Feb. 27, 1993.
According to Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Boris Grubesic, they were taken to a school near Visegrad, robbed and assaulted before being taken to a nearby village and shot. Their bodies were dumped in the Drina river.
The remains of just three victims have been found and identified.
Fifteen suspects were arrested last December in a joint operation by Bosnian and Serbian investigators. Last month, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office indicted five suspects.
All of those arrested were allegedly members of the Bosnian-Serb Avengers paramilitary unit.
The ten charged in Bosnia were named as Luka Dragicevic, a senior member of the Bosnian-Serb army; Boban Indic; Obrad Poluga; Novak Poluga; Dragan Sekaric; Oliver Krsmanovic; Petko Indic; Radojica Ristic; Vuk Ratkovic and Mico Jovicic.
More than a decade ago, a man was jailed for 15 years by a court in Montenegro for his involvement in the massacre.
Prosecutors previously said the ringleader in the case was Milan Lukic, a former Bosnian-Serb warlord currently serving a life sentence for other war crimes.
