[JURIST] Serbia's Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor [official website] Tuesday confirmed an ongoing investigation conducted in cooperation with Croatian authorities against 12 former Serb paramilitary members for their alleged role in the "torture, inhuman treatment, and killing of 70 civilians" in the Croatian town of Lovas. The prosecutor's statement followed a report that Serbian police had arrested seven former Serb paramilitaries in connection with the October 1991 Lovas Massacre [Wikipedia backgrounder].

Serbia [JURIST news archive] has come under increased international pressure from the European Union (UN) [official website] and the United States to prosecute war criminals and arrest war crimes fugitives. On May 15, the chief war crimes prosecutor of Serbia told reporters that the search [JURIST report] for former Bosnian Serb military chief and UN-indicted war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] "has not stopped for even a moment" and hinted at progress following statements by the EU that EU-Serbia pre-membership negotiations could resume depending on Serbia's commitment to bring war crimes suspects to justice. The negotiations were suspended in May 2005 due to the EU's perception that Serbia was failing to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive]. AP has more.