International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

After UN officials repeatedly expressed concerns that freed war criminals have used media appearances after their release to deny atrocities, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals has barred Serbian police general Sreten Lukic from denying any crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars as a condition of his release.

The Victims' Participation Office of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers said in its opening statement at the first trial held at the Hague-based court on Wednesday that the alleged victims of Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA fighters during the 1998-99 war have been intimidated into silence for decades.

Borisav Jovic, one of last presidents of the presidency of socialist Yugoslavia prior to its break-up, a key ally of Slobodan Milosevic and a leading figure in his ruling Socialist Party, died on Monday as a consequence of contracting COVID-19.

Mayor of Niksic Marko Kovacevic (right) at a session of parliament. Photo: Parliament of Montenegro.

"After gathering the necessary evidence, the Higher Prosecution in Podgorica filed an indictment, and the High Court in Podgorica will have to confirm it," state prosecutor Lepa Medenica told news website CDM.

The municipality of Negotin has posted an announcement on its official Facebook page for an event on Wednesday evening to promote a new book by convicted Serbian war criminal Veselin Sljivancanin at the public library in the eastern Serbian town.

Due to their publication, officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Association Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj were arrested and accused of undermining the work of the court.

The Bosnian state court on Thursday rejected a request from Croatia to remand Vinko Martinovic, alias Stela, in custody after his arrest the previous day on an international arrest warrant for committing a murder in 1996.

The decision of the local assembly of Pantelej, a municipality of the city of Nis, the biggest city in southern Serbia, to make a convicted war criminal, Vladimir Lazarevic, an honorary citizen is not surprising and represents part of the "petty political game" of the ruling party, NGO activists told BIRN.

"Gentlemen, I want to talk a little bit more about [our] promotional focus, given the advantages gained from Storm," Tudjman said as he opened the session.

Croatian Serb advocacy orgnisations and other human rights organisations on Wednesday started a six-day campaign to commemorate the Serbian civilian victims of the Croatian army's 1995 Operation "Oluja" ("Storm").

The operation terminated an ethnic Serb rebellion but also resulted in some 200,000 Serbs being expelled or fleeing the Knin region in southwest Croatia.