SARAJEVO – Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina say they have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in war crimes committed against civilians during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
The suspects were apprehended on December 3 in or near the eastern towns of Bijeljina and Sokolac, Bosnia's State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) said.
It said all seven suspects will be handed over to prosecutors for questioning before a court rules on their possible pretrial detention.
According to Bosnia’s Prosecutor's Office, they were charged with participating in the killing of 22 Bosniaks, including seven children, in the village of Balatun nearly 30 years ago.
At the time, the three suspects were members of the Serb police, it said.
Serb paramilitaries led by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan seized the Bijeljina area and massacred at least 100 civilians in the town over the following days.
At least 500 civilians were killed in Bijeljina by the end of the war, according to the nongovernmental organization Return Association.
More than 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian conflict, which ended with a U.S.-brokered agreement that divided the country and its administration largely along ethnic lines among Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.
This is the second operation to arrest war crimes suspects conducted by SIPA in the last 10 days.
On November 30, the agency arrested nine people in the northwestern town of Novi Grad suspected of crimes against humanity.