Belgrade – Police on Friday arrested a popular Bosnian General along with 11 others in connection with war crimes against ethnic Serbs during the 1992 to1995 Bosnian war.
Atif Dudakovic, the former commander of the army that fought the Serbs, is suspected of crimes against humanity and crimes against a civilian population, war crimes prosecutors said in Sarajevo.
The remaining 11 suspects were all members of Dudakovic’s Fifth Corps, which carried out the alleged atrocities in north-western Bosnia.
The prosecution said that the arrests follow several years of investigations that included interviews with hundreds of witnesses.
Dudakovic, 64, is very popular among Bosniaks, Bosnia’s Muslim population, which regards him as a hero for his role in the war against Belgrade-backed Serbs.
He commanded the combined forces of Bosniaks and Croats in the northwest during the war and later became the top commander of their army.
Large-scale war crimes, such as the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks at Srebrenica and the shelling and sniping of Sarajevo, characterised the Bosnian war, but all three ethnic groups suffered atrocities.
The war broke out when the Serbs refused to accept the result of a March 1992 referendum which paved the way for Bosnia to split from the disintegrating former Yugoslavia.
Bosniaks and Croats were in favour of the secession, while the Serbs wanted to remain in union with Serbia proper.
