Wars of independence

Bosnians gathered in central Prijedor on Wednesday for the annual 'White Ribbon Day' commemoration of the victims of wartime crimes against non-Serbs in the area, where some 3,000 people died including 102 children in a campaign of persecution that started in 1992.

The UN court in The Hague is delivering its final verdict on Wednesday in the war crimes retrial of top Serbian State Security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, who have appealed against their 12-year sentences for involvement in wartime crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague announced on Tuesday that the verdict on Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic's appeal against their conviction for war crimes in Bosnia will be handed down on May 31.

Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic urged the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Tuesday to reverse the verdict sentencing them to 12 years in prison each and acquit them of aiding and abetting Serb fighting units that committed crimes in the Bosanski Samac area during the Bosnian war in 1992.

In Croatia, there are numerous reactions to the confirmed indictment of Serbia against four pilots for war crimes against civilians on the Petrovac road in early August 1995.
Minister of Justice and Administration, Ivan Malenica, also believes that this is a political process, which, he says, can be the reason for blocking Serbia's entry into the European Union.

Miroljub Vujovic, a Serb wartime fighter who was convicted in Serbia of participating in killing some 200 prisoners from the Croatian town of Vukovar at the nearby Ovcara Farm in November 1991, has been granted early release based on the Belgrade Appeals Court's conclusion that his "resocialisation" is complete.

View of the burning city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia, in November 1991, after air raids and artillery attacks by the Yugoslav Army. Photo: EPA/PETER NORTHALL

MPs in the Serbian parliament on Tuesday voted against debating three proposed resolutions related to the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Lawyers for former Serbian State Security Service officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic appealed on Monday against the verdict in June which sentenced them both to 12 years in prison for aiding and abetting crimes war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.

June 2021 was an unusually busy month for coverage of war crimes in the Serbian media, which doesn't usually report on the subject very often. Just a few weeks apart, two major verdicts were announced in The Hague that were highly uncomfortable for Serbia.