Former Bosnian commander among 12 arrested over war crimes

Bosnian police arrested 12 people today including a former Bosnian commander, suspected of being responsible for war crimes against hundreds of people during the country's 1990s conflict.

The 12 men, including retired General Atif Dudakovic, are accused of being responsible for the deaths of several hundred victims including Serbian civilians and military prisoners, as well as against the Bosnian Muslim population, police said in a statement.

They were all members of the mainly Muslim Bosnian army 5th corps, a unit operating in western Bosnia, a region completely surrounded by Serbian forces from Croatia and Bosnia.

Although the conflict was fought between the country's three main ethnic communities -- Serbs, Muslims and Croats -- in this region Bosnians also clashed with each other.

Commanders of Bosnian forces have rarely been tried for war crimes. Two chiefs of staff, General Rasim Delic and Sefer Halilovic, were tried by the UN tribunal in The Hague.

Delic was sentenced to three years in prison by the international court in 2008 but died while awaiting an appeal verdict. Halilovic was acquitted in 2005.

Commander of the Bosnian forces 3rd corps during the conflict, Sakib Mahmuljin, has been on trial since March 2016 in Sarajevo accused of failing to prevent the killing of 52 Serbian prisoners of war in 1995 by a Mujahideen unit. Bosnia's 1992-1995 war broke out as Yugoslavia collapsed and claimed some 100,000 lives.

The conflict also displaced about two million people, almost half the country's pre-war population.

Bosnian authorities are allowed to try low-profile war crimes cases, while the UN war crimes tribunal, which has now closed, was tasked with hearing cases involving top wartime officials.