War victims hailed the UN war crimes tribunal’s verdict convicting former Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, but the judgment was either ignored or condemned by Serb political leaders.
Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic were jailed for 15 years each for crimes committed by Serbian fighting units during the 1990s wars in Bosnia and Croatia as part of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’ to force out non-Serbs.
The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre urged Serbia to start prosecuting surviving members of notorious criminal Zeljko ‘Arkan’ Raznatovic’s Serbian Volunteer Guard for their role in wartime crimes in Bosnia and Croatia.
Yugoslav troops, Serbian paramilitaries and local Serb policemen tortured and killed dozens of Croats and ethnic Hungarians in the village of Erdut in 1991. Few have been prosecuted so far, but Hague Tribunal documents reveal names of potential suspects.