Bosniak Ex-Fighters Tried for Assaulting Serb Prisoners

The trial of former Bosniak fighters Mustafa Stovrag, Camil Ramic, Mehmedalija Topalovic, Himzo Selimovic and Ramiz Micivoda, who are all accused of prisoner abuse during wartime, opened at the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Monday.

Ramic, Topalovic, Selimovic and Micivoda are charged with crimes against prisoners of war - members of the Bosnian Serb Army - in the period between 1992 and 1994.

Prisoners were allegedly beaten and some suffered broken bones. The indictment says that one prisoner, whose body has never been found, died as a result of the beating he sustained, while another died in detention.

Dobraca is accused of crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in the Rogatica and Gorazde areas between February and October 1995.

According to the charges, Ramic was chief of security at the municipal headquarters of the local Territorial Defence force and later the assistant commander for security with the Visegrad Brigade of the Bosnian Army, while Topalovic was a Bosnian Army soldier.

Selimovic was a member of the security authority at the Bosnian Army's Eastern Bosnia Operational Group for Security, and later its assistant commander, while Micivoda was a deputy military police commander with the Eastern Bosnia Operational Group.

Dobraca is charged as a former officer for headquarters security and military police affairs with the security authority and assistant commander for security with the 81st Division of the Bosnian Army.

Another man, Mustafa Stovrag, was previously charged alongside Ramic, Topalovic, Selimovic and Micivoda, but his case was separated from the four others because of his illness.

The court then joined the case against Dobraca to the one against Ramic, Topalovic, Selimovic and...