Croatian Defence Council

As part of an initiative called "Unmarked Suffering Sites", a group of peace activists in July put up nine more signs at new locations where they say war crimes occurred, either through capture, physical and mental violence or forced labour.

Former prisoners will lay flowers at a ceremony on Sunday to commemorate the suffering of Bosniak civilians held by Bosnian Croat forces at the Kostana Hospital in Stolac in 1993, an event organised by the Association of Camp Prisoners of Stolac.

Robert Kovacic, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council wanted for war crimes, was arrested last month in the United States on a warrant issued by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is now awaiting an extradition hearing in a US court in July.

Kovacic, now 66, was arrested in Roanoke, Virginia on May 16. He is currently in custody in the US and his extradition is pending.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Friday raised former Croatian Defence Council brigade commander Mensur Djakic's sentence from two to eight years in prison.

A spokesperson for Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the German Chancellor was not familiar with the nationalist song that was performed at the Croatian Democratic Union rally that she attended on Saturday, and was not informed about the content of the event's musical programme in advance.

The Bosnian state court. Photo: BIRN.

The first prosecution witness told the Bosnian state court on the opening day of the trial of eight former Bosnian Army soldiers on Friday that he saw the corpses of the victims at a secondary school gym in Krizancevo Selo, near Vitez, on December 22, 1993.

The verdict acquitting former Croatian Defence Council commander Mile Puljic, who was cleared of crimes against prisoners in Mostar in 1993 and 1994, was quashed and a retrial ordered.

Several events are being held in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday and Friday to commemorate the death of former Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak, a year after he swallowed poison in the courtroom while the verdict finding him guilty of war crimes was being read out.

A Croatian artist is exhibiting a painting of Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak taking poison after the Hague Tribunal convicted him last year of committing war crimes against Bosniaks in the 1990s.

Bosnia’s Constitutional Court will hear an appeal filed by the defence of former Croatian Defence Council fighter Indira Kameric, who was sentenced to four years in prison for crimes against civilian detainees.