Milan Martic

"Milosevic's men on the ground" was the most common description of these two leading Serbian state security officials - Jovica Stanisic, chief of the interior ministry's State Security Service and his right-hand man, Franko 'Frenki' Simatovic, commander of the service's Special Operations Unit.

Fighting units under the ultimate command of Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic "controlled the situation on the ground" in Serb-controlled parts of Croatia and, to a lesser extent, Bosnia during the wars of the 1990s, veteran Serbian journalist Filip Svarm told BIRN ahead of the verdict in the pair's war crimes trial in The Hague.

Zagreb County Court on Tuesday convicted Milan Martic, the former president of an unrecognised wartime Serb rebel statelet called the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and his military chief-of-staff, Milan Celeketic, of staging rocket attacks on Croatian cities in 1995.

Under the first-instance verdict, Martic was sentenced to seven years in prison and Celeketic to 20 years.

Witness Dejan Lucic told the retrial of Serbian State Security Service officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Thursday that the defendants did not send Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias Captain Dragan, to Croatia in 1991 to set up a training camp for rebel Serb fighters.

The trial of Milan Martic, the leader of rebel Croatian Serbs during wartime, and Milan Celeketic, his military chief-of-staff, started in their absence at a Zagreb court.

Milan Martic, the leader of rebel Croatian Serbs during wartime, and Milan Celeketic, his military chief-of-staff, will go on trial in absentia on May 31 for rocket attacks on Croatian cities.

Milan Martic, the leader of rebel Croatian Serbs in the 1990s, and Milan Celeketic, his military chief-of-staff, will go on trial in absentia next month for rocket attacks on Croatian cities.

A former Yugoslav general was arrested in Montenegro on July 19 on suspicion of having committed war crimes in the 1990s, an official source in Podgorica said.

Victims remembered 20 years after Croatia's Operation Flash

BELGRADE -- Friday marks 20 years since the offensive of Croatian forces against Serb areas in western Slavonia, at the time a part of the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK).

Former Croatian Serb minister Milan Martic, who is serving a 35-year sentence for war crimes, wants to be moved from Estonia, where he claims that prison conditions are poor.