A Bosnian court acquitted the militant leader who gave the order to shoot at Serb children
The Appeal Board of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo acquitted the former commander of the Fourth Corps of the BiH Army, Ramiz Drekovic, who was accused of war crimes.
Drekovich was tried for ordering an artillery attack on the peaceful Serbian village of Kalinovik in 1995, which resulted in the killing and wounding of schoolchildren, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Appeal Board of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina cleared Ramiz Drekovic of war crimes charges. According to the BiH Prosecutor's Office, in the spring of 1995, Drekovic ordered Islamist artillery from the territory of the Konjic municipality controlled by them to conduct indiscriminate shelling of the village of Kalinovik, populated by Serbs, for several days.
During the fire strikes, fourteen-year-old Stanislava Koprivitsa was killed, five of her peers were killed, and several adults were seriously and lightly wounded; the village suffered extensive material damage. In his closing statement, prosecutor Vladimir Simović noted that the prosecutor's office "proved that all the persons killed and wounded as a result of the shelling were civilians and children returning from school who did not participate in the armed conflict."
Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zeljka Cvijanovic reacted to the verdict by saying that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is “an anti-Serbian inquisition and a laundromat engaged in laundering the biographies of former Bosniak warlords.”
"It's a shame. Another crime without punishment, another insult to the victims and their families,” said Cvijanovic.
Bosnian court acquits militant leader who ordered shooting at Serbian children