[JURIST] Bosnian police on Monday arrested [press release, in Serbian] 12 men suspected of war crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian Civil War [JURIST news archive]. The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website] stated that these individuals allegedly violated Article 172 of the Criminal Code [text, PDF], committing crimes against humanity. They are charged with murder, torture and rape of the population of the Zecovi village in the town of Prijedor, as well as looting and destruction of property. These individuals are specifically under investigation for the murders of 29 women and children. The attack on the Zecovi village resulted in the deaths 150 Muslim Bosniaks. Some of the victims’ bodies were found last year in the Tomasica mass grave, which is the largest mass grave found after the war and estimated to hold the remains of 1,000 people. Three additional suspects for these crimes are outside of Bosnia, and the prosecutor’s office will issue international warrants for their arrests.

Investigations [JURIST backgrounder] of war crimes relating to the Bosnian-Serbian conflict are ongoing and suspects are still being arrested and prosecuted. In January Ratko Mladic [JURIST news archive], former leader of the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian civil war, refused to testify [JURIST report] in the war crimes trial of fellow Bosnian Serb military leader Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile]. Earlier that month the appeals chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the war crimes convictions of four Serbian military officials, but reduced the sentences for three of them. This tribunal has sentenced [AP report] 16 Bosnian Serbs to a total of 230 years in prison for crimes in Prijedor. The ICTY’s term of prosecution has been extended until December 2014.