BELGRADE: Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor on Thursday charged eight men with participation in the 1995 slaughter of some 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Arrested in March, the eight were accused of ordering and participating in the execution of several hundred Muslims in a single day at a warehouse in the eastern Bosnian town of Kravica, near Srebrenica, a prosecutor’s statement said.

If found guilty, they face the maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.

The indictment is a “message that there will be no impunity for war crimes and that the victims will not be forgotten,” prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said.

“The indictment reflects Serbia’s position towards the most serious crime committed since World War II and it is the result of a good regional cooperation,” he added.

Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed and their bodies dumped in mass graves during the massacre, which became a symbol of the horror of the 1990s Balkan wars that accompanied the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.—AFP

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2015

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