A Montenegrin suspected of murdering and raping Muslim civilians in Bosnia during the deadly inter-communal war of the 1990s has been arrested, authorities said on Friday (October 22nd).
Slobodan Pekovic was charged with the murders of two Muslim civilians and the rape of several Muslim women in 1992, at the start of the conflict.
The crimes were committed in Foca, in south-eastern Bosnia.
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The 51-year-old suspect, arrested earlier this week, has been remanded in custody for 30 days, his lawyer Adrijana Razic told AFP. According to local media, Slobodan Pekovic was a member of the Bosnian Serb army during the war. The conflict left around 100,000 people dead between 1992 and 1995. Montenegro, which was part of the former Yugoslavia, participated in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo under the leadership of ex-Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milosevic . But no combat took place on its territory.
Since Montenegro became independent from Serbia in 2006, the tiny Balkan country has held eight trials for war crimes committed in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
Only suspects considered small fry were tried and only one case resulted in a conviction.
In 2019, a former Yugoslav army soldier was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of four Albanian civilians during the war in Kosovo.
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Under pressure from the European Union, which Montenegro wants to join, in 2015 the country adopted a program of investigations into war crimes.
In its latest progress report on Montenegro, the European Commission considered that Podgorica should "step up its efforts (...) to fight impunity for war crimes".
The former Yugoslav Republic must be "more proactive" in investigations, prosecutions, trials and convictions, according to the report.
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