Monday, September 1, 2008

SLOVENIAN "FRANC KOS" LINKED TO SREBRENICA GENOCIDE KILLINGS

A Slovenian living in Bosnia under a false identity is suspected of having taken part in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, local media reported.

The Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo demanded an investigation into 10 people suspected of participating in the massacre in which between 8,000 and 10,000 Bosniak boys and men were executed in July 1995.

The Slovenian is named as Franc Kos and is said to have been mentioned in the minutes taken during testimonies by a number of witnesses before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

In the minutes Kos is described as the leader of the Bijeljina platoon, and was known under the nicknames Slovenac or Zuca. The witnesses blamed the platoon for the murder of hundreds, even thousands of Srebrenica Muslims.

Police and prosecutors in the Slovenian town of Celje have confirmed that they investigated Kos’s involvement in the massacre. He is currently living in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within the Bosnian Federation, under a false identity which has not been revealed.

The news that a Slovenian national was among those suspected of genocide was confirmed to POP TV by the police in Celje, as well as the local prosecution, which is already looking into the allegations that Kos committed crimes in Srebrenica together with Bosnian and Serbian nationals. It was also confirmed that Kos had changed his identity and was living under a different name in the Republic of Srpska.

Slovenian media added that he was not currently in Slovenia, meaning that there was little chance of any charges of genocide being filed against him in Slovenia, where the crime of genocide carries a prison sentence of between 10 and 30 years.

Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic are top indictees for the Serbrenica genocide. Karadzic is behind bars in The Hague, while Mladic is still at large, believed to be hiding in Belgrade, Serbia.

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