The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina requests to issue an international warrant for Milenko Živanović, the former commander of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, accused of crimes against humanity committed in the area of Srebrenica and Žepa in July 1995, it was confirmed for Detektor.ba.
After the accused Živanović failed to appear in the courtroom three times for the plea of guilty, at the last hearing, the State Prosecutor’s Office requested that he be detained and an international warrant issued.
Although Živanović’s defense attorney Petko Pavlović opposed these measures, the Court of BiH then issued a decision ordering custody. The defense filed an appeal against this decision, but it was rejected as unfounded.
After ordering detention, the Court also requested the remaining documentation required for the issuance of an international warrant, and the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Detektor.ba that it had been delivered at the beginning of July, after which an order was issued for the issuance of an international warrant for Živanović.
At the previously scheduled plea hearings in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they stated that all three times there was a problem when serving the summons to the accused in Serbia, where he resides, and that the Court was not informed why, regardless of the urgency.
In December 2021, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against Živanović for participating in a broad and systematic attack against the Bosniak civilian population of the safe area of Srebrenica and Žepa, during which the Army of the Republika Srpska and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska carried out an operation to permanently and forcibly relocate the civilian population from those zones, an operation to capture and liquidate about 8,000 men. The indictment was later confirmed by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The indictment states that Živanović, as commander of the Drina Corps, planned and directed the activities of subordinate units in his area of responsibility. His successor as corps commander, Radislav Krstić, is the first person convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to 35 years in prison.
Proceedings against Živanović for the crimes committed in Srebrenica are also conducted by the judiciary in Serbia, and according to the indictment of the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes, he is accused of having ordered and participated in the forced relocation of the civilian population of Bosniak nationality in July 1995.
