BiH, Serbia police arrest 15 suspects in Strpci massacre

BELGRADE - The police in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia Friday morning arrested 15 persons suspected of kidnapping 20 people from a Belgrade-Bar train and killing them on the banks of the Drina River in Visegrad in eastern BiH on February 27, 1993.

The police arrested 10 people in Prijedor and Visegrad in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in BiH, and five people in Serbia, all of whom are suspected of war crimes against civilians.

The joint police action was carried out simultaneously in both countries under orders from the the BiH Prosecutor's Office and the Republic of Serbia Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes.

The Serbian Interior Ministry said in a release that all arrested persons have been taken into custody at the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office detention unit in Belgrade.

According to the release, 18 Bosniaks, one Croat, and one other person of unknown nationality were abducted from the train at the station in Strpci on February 27, 1993, during the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

There are reasons to suspect that the crime was committed by the paramilitary unit Osvetnici (Avengers) from Republika Srpska, formed by Milan Lukic, who was sentenced and serves his sentence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes in Visegrad.

The abducted passengers were taken in a truck to the gym of the elementary school in the village of Prelovo near Visegrad, where they were lined up, searched for money, jewelry and other valuables and then beaten.

After that, the victims were tied in wire, placed in the truck and taken to a garage of one of the burnt village houses near the riverbank in Visegrad and murdered there on February 28.

Their bodies...