SARAJEVO: Bosnian police on Tuesday arrested 10 former high ranking Bosnian Serb police and soldiers suspected of killing dozens of Muslim civilians at the start of the country’s 1992-1995 war.

The suspects were accused of having “planned, led and participated in an operation” aimed at persecuting Muslims from the village of Lokanj, near the northeastern town of Zvornik, a prosecutors’ statement said.

Some 120 civilians, including women and children, were evicted from their homes in the village on July 14, 1992. Sixty seven of them were later shot dead, the statement said.

The suspects were arrested in a police operation in an area where Serbs led a notorious ethnic campaign at the start of the war, including Zvornik as well as nearby Bijeljina and Ugljevik.

Almost 2,000 Muslims were killed in the area, according to associations of victims’ families. Hundreds are still reported missing.

An estimated 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the war.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2014