Bosnia war crimes court indicts Muslim officer News
Bosnia war crimes court indicts Muslim officer

[JURIST] The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website; HRW backgrounder] has indicted [PDF text; press release] former Bosnian Muslim military commander Sefik Alic for acting contrary to Article 3(1)(a) of the Third Geneva Conventions [text; ICRC backgrounder] by subjecting prisoners to inhuman treatment and depriving them of their life. Alic allegedly took custody of four Serb prisoners from the Army of Srpska Krajina in August of 1995, and participated in the physical and psychological abuse of the prisoners. Alic is also accused of having failed to ensure the safety of the prisoners, which resulted in their killings by soldiers under Alic's command. The indictment, released Thursday, also states that Alic failed to report the killings to his superiors and did not take adequate action to investigate the killings and punish the perpetrators.

The Bosnian War Crimes Chamber, tasked to investigate and prosecute atrocities during the 1992-1995 ethnic war between Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats, was established in March 2005 [JURIST report] to ease the backlog of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website; JURIST news archive], which is currently trying to complete all its work by 2010. AFP has more.