Municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The District Court in Doboj has confirmed an indictment charging Ante Pavic, a former military policeman with the Croatian Defence Council, the Bosnian Croat wartime force, with war crimes against civilians.

Holding sheets with the names of their loved ones and banners with their pictures, every month for the last 25 years, no matter the weather, these women have sent clear messages. 

The Bosnian state court announced on Thursday that its appeals chamber has sentenced Srecko Acimovic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army Zvornik Brigade's Second Battalion, to seven years in prison for aiding and abetting the genocide of Bosniak men from Srebrenica in July 1995.

Graves of Srebrenica victims. Archive photo: Wikimedia Commons/Michael Buker.

It said that the remains are believed to be those of victims of the massacres of some 8,000 Bosniak man and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995, which international courts have classified as genocide.

In its closing statement on Wednesday, the prosecution called on the state court in Sarajevo to convict Srecko Acimovic of genocide and give him a sentence as close to the maximum as possible.

Courts in the towns of Doboj and Sokolac have rejected requests to ban 16 associations whose titles contain the words 'Chetnik Movement' or 'Ravna Gora Movement', while three more courts in Bosnia's Serb-majority Republika Srpska entity are still considering requests to ban the associations, BIRN has learned.

Local authorities declared a state of emergency on Monday night in several northern Bosnian towns due to heavy rainfall.

In the towns of Bihac, Banja Luka, Sanski Most and Celinac, swollen rivers caused the collapse of bridges and cut road links, blocking access to remote villages.

The explosion occurred around 9:30 pm local time at the Russian-owned refinery in the northern Bosnian town of Brod, the local authorities announced on Tuesday night.

According to Brod's mayor Ilija Jovicic, several workers were injured in the event but are not in danger. The explosion was followed by a huge fire that firefighters are trying to contain.

However, the leader of the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina denied that he demanded spacial treatment when he was stopped on his way to the town of Karlovac.

The Banja Luka daily Nezavisne is reporting Dodik as saying that his car was moving at "over 180 kilometers per hour" - and that the fine was "astronomical."

Former Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Tomislav Kovac was charged with controlling all the police forces involved in the mass executions of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in 1995.