Yugoslav People's Army

The Defence Ministry reacted angrily on Wednesday evening after the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, criticised it for hosting a promotional event in Belgrade for a book that denies court findings that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the May 1995 massacre in Tuzla.

The Serbian Defence Ministry hosted a promotional event on Tuesday evening for a new book that claims to prove that Bosnian Serb forces were not responsible for the Tuzla Gate massacre in which 71 people died on May 25, 1995, contradicting the facts established by the Bosnian state court.

Domestic courts have still not convicted anyone of this or many other shelling incidents in Tuzla during wartime, in which over 100 civilians were killed. Despite the fact that the Bosniak-majority city was declared a protected zone by the United Nations in June 1993, it was subsequently targeted by Bosnian Serb forces.

"I'm still looking for my father's remains, 27 years after he was killed. The last time I talked to him was over the phone on June 24, 1992. Two days later I called again. No one answered the phone," Milan Mandic, a pre-war resident of Sarajevo, told BIRN.

The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre on Friday criticised the Serbian war crimes prosecutors for not indicting Dusan Loncar, commander of the Second Guards Brigade of the Yugoslav People's Army, or any senior Yugoslav officer for the killings of Croatian civilians in Lovas in 1991.

Belgrade High Court on Thursday found Zeljko Krnjacic, Milan Devcic, Darko Peric, Radovan Vlajkovic, Radisav Josipovic, Jovan Dimitrijevic, Sasa Stojanovic and Zoran Kosijer guilty of involvement in a war crime against civilians in Lovas in Croatia in October 1991.

Six of the eight defendants in the Lovas trial gave closing statements at Belgrade Higher Court on Tuesday, insisting that they were not guilty of war crimes and asking for acquittals.

One of them, Radislav Josipovic, said he was sorry for the victims who were killed in the Croatian village in October 1991.

The Croatian foreign ministry said on Thursday that it will investigate whether its ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Del Vechio, attended celebrations of the disputed Bosnian Serb 'statehood day' in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Republika Srpska, on January 9.

Beside Ivan del Vecchio, leader of the Croatian Democratic Alliance (HDZ) BiH Dragan Covic was also in Banja Luka for the marking of the Serb Republic (RS) holiday.

The State Attorney's Office in Split said on Thursday that it will begin an investigation into an unnamed 72-year-old Serbian citizen accused of crimes against prisoners during the war in 1992 and 1993.