BOSNIA-WAR CRIMES/ARREST-PROTEST Hundreds protest in Sarajevo in support of arrested wartime commander

Record ID: 151211

  • Title: BOSNIA-WAR CRIMES/ARREST-PROTEST Hundreds protest in Sarajevo in support of arrested wartime commander
  • Date: 12th June 2015
  • Summary: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JUNE 12, 2015) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS GATHERED IN STREET TWO MEN HOLDING LARGE BANNER READING (Bosnian) "SUPPORT FOR NASER ORIC" PICKET SIGN WITH NEWSPAPER PICTURE OF ORIC, READING (Bosnian): "SHAMEFUL ARREST OF NASER ORIC!" SARAJEVO RESIDENT, SAMRA HADZIABDIC, HOLDING SIGN READING (Bosnian): "WE ARE ALL NASER ORIC! WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LA
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD83EDUGQ9UC606YCBIG17VT6B
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hundreds of protesters gathered in Sarajevo on Friday (June 12) to show support for the arrested wartime Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric.
    Oric, a commander of the Srebrenica enclave during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was arrested in Switzerland on Wednesday (June 10) in connection with alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity based on a request submitted by the authorities of Serbia.
    He is being held in detention pending extradition. Swiss authorities said on Thursday (June 11) that he will contest his extradition.
    The news of the arrest of Oric, regarded by many Bosnian Muslims as a hero, stirred some to take to the streets.
    "I am here today as an ordinary citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a child who lived through the war in Bosnia in Herzegovina, to show support for Naser Oric and all our war veterans who made it possible for us who were children back then to live in Bosnia today, whatever problems it may have," Sarajevo resident, Samra Hadziabdic, said at a protest in front of the Swiss embassy in Sarajevo and the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    Bosnia's Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic has said that the arrest was politically motivated and aimed at distracting public attention from a resolution drafted by Britain at the United Nations Security Council to mark next month's 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, angering Serbs.
    His thoughts were echoed by some of the protesters.
    "This was just the most recent act done to destabilise the Bosniak part of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Every opportunity is used to put an equal sign between Bosniaks and aggressors, and to put victims on equal footing with the ones who persecuted us," Sarajevo resident Dzebral Bajramovic said.
    In July 1995, toward the end of the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb forces swept into a U.N.-designated "safe haven" from where they took 8,000 Muslim men and boys to be executed in the days that followed.
    Oric, then a Bosnian army commander, was in charge of organizing the defence of the town.
    He was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against Serbs but was acquitted of all charges in 2008, a ruling that angered the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia, who see the tribunal as biased against them.
    Serbian authorities suspect that between 1992 and 1995, Oric and other members of the Bosnian Muslim forces attacked Serbian villages in the Srebrenica region to drive out the civilian population.
    The arrest request refers to an attack on Zalazje in which nine people were killed in July 1992.
    Bosnia's chief prosecutor said he would ask Serbia's prosecution to hand over the case to Bosnia in accordance with an agreement on judicial cooperation between the two Balkan nations.
    Oric is the fourth Bosnian high-ranking official arrested outside the country on Serbian warrants for crimes committed on Bosnian territory during the 1992-95 war, which killed an estimated 100,000 people.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register