Posted on 10/06/2006 1:32:41 PM PDT by kronos77
SARAJEVO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Bosnian state prosecutors have launched an investigation of Bosnian Muslim wartime general Atif Dudakovic for suspected war crimes against Bosnian Serbs in 1995, Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic said on Friday.
Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and President Dragan Cavic requested an investigation after local broadcasters aired footage apparently showing Dudakovic, a wartime hero for Muslims, giving orders to burn Serb villages.
"We have officially opened the investigation against Atif Dudakovic and other persons based on the grounds of suspicion they committed some criminal acts regarded as war crimes," Jurcevic told reporters.
"The investigation is under way."
Dudakovic has dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and said the amateur video footage, broadcast also on Serbian television, was fabricated.
Bosnian Muslim leaders have rallied behind him, saying he was only defending his country, and many commentators suggested the August broadcasting of the tape was timed to inflame national passions before the October 1 Bosnian election.
The video shows Dudakovic, then the commander of the Fifth Corps in western Bosnia, on a battlefield. His words, barely audible, appeared in subtitles as "Burn them all" when the footage was aired on Bosnian and Serb TV stations.
Dudakovic has denied saying these words, and has said he might have been filmed during a training exercise.
Another recording showed officers and soldiers from his unit harassing convoys of Serbs fleeing from a Croatian military offensive in August 1995, yelling at refugees and pushing them around. A man who had his arms raised in surrender is shot dead.
The broadcast prompted Croatia to say it would investigate possible war crimes committed during the 1995 "Storm" campaign to take back parts of Croatia from rebel Serbs, which led some 200,000 Croatian Serbs to flee the country.
Don't get your hopes up. He'll probably get the same as Naser Oric -- which is to say a smack on the hand and advice not to do it again.
He will get a medail...
Well I am still hoping at least :)
Muslims the world over will be outraged...or, rather, will tag this onto their existing outrage,. But maybe it'll ratched the dems up a bit.
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