In a coordinated field operation, acting on the order of a prosecutor from the Special Department for War Crimes, SIPA police officers located, identified and deprived of liberty a total of seven suspects in the area of Sokolac municipality in the early morning hours.

Through international legal mechanisms, the extradition of one of the suspects located in overseas countries will be requested.

The suspects under investigation are charged with taking part in a joint criminal enterprise and are former senior officials of the Sokolac Crisis Staff, the army and the police, as well as the direct perpetrators of the 1992 murder of Bosniak civilians in the village of Novoseoci, Sokolac municipality.

The said crime was committed on 21/22 September 1992, when members of the VRS attacked the village and separated men from women and children. The men were then transported by military trucks to the location of the dump in Ivan Polje, where they were brutally killed by gunfire, and buried at the dump, while the women and children were expelled and transported to the territory of Sarajevo.

Among the killed ones there were underage boys and one woman who was killed in an attack on the village. The youngest victim was 14 and the oldest was 82 years old.

All the victims, except for the mortal remains of one killed civilian, were discovered, exhumed and identified after the war, and as many as 178 gunshot wounds were found in the mortal remains.

After the crime had been committed, the mosque in Novoseoci was mined and demolished, and the rubble of the mosque were taken to the dump and thrown over the bodies of the killed.

During the day, police and operational activities will be carried out to bring the suspects to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.

The case also includes Radislav Krstić, convicted at the ICTY for the Srebrenica genocide, who was commander of the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS in 1992, who will be examined in co-operation with the IRMCT and Poland, where he is serving his prison sentence.

The case prosecutor will examine the suspects after which he will make a decision on further activities in this case.

This morning’s operation, which was carried out on order of the Special Department for War Crimes, refers to the following suspects:

1.      Milan Tupajić, born in 1954, Knežina, Sokolac municipality, former president of the Sokolac Crisis Staff

2.      Dragomir Obradović, aka “Dragan”, born in 1950 in Krševi, Sokolac municipality, former commander of the Sokolac Public Security Station

3.      Radislav Krstić, born in 1948 in Nedjeljište, Vlasenica municipality, former commander of the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS, serving his sentence in Poland

4.      KN, born in 1954, member of the Military Police Company within 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS, residing in Canada, extradition will be requested

5.      Miladin Gašević aka “Ćirko”, born in 1961 in Vidrići, Sokolac municipality, Deputy Commander of the Reconnaissance Company within the Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS

6.      Momir Kezunović, born in 1957 in Vidrići, Sokolac municipality, member of the Reconnaissance Company within the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS

7.      Branislav Kezunović aka “Miki”, born in 1959 in Vidrići, Sokolac municipality, member of the Reconnaissance Company within the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS

8.      Željko Gašević, born in 1968 in Sokolac, member of the Reconnaissance Company within the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS

9.      Jadranko Šuka, born in 1957 in Sokolac, member of the Reconnaissance Company within the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade of the VRS