[joan]

From my research it was a Bosnian Serb court which convicted him for this. He was with a group of 7 others caught by NATO/SFOR around Zvornik (which is in the RS) some months AFTER Dayton. They were caught armed and in the woods. The men were militants from Srebrenica. They were tried for killing 4 Serbian woodcutters (not sure yet if this was during or after the war) and burning and cutting up their bodies and burying them.

Research of his name also shows that he, or someone with his name and born in the same year (1967), was wanted for kiling 35 Serbs in Milici in 1993.

[joan]

Since you have done your research on the Srebrenica Muslim army and men during and after the fall, perhaps you ought to look into this case of Samir Avdic.

Samir Avdic was one of 8 Srebrenica men caught in the RS in the spring of 1996. The man up to be deported for Bosnia was convicted in the Bosnian Serb courts of killing another Bosniak militant he was with. He and another of his group had an arguement over salt, then they killed him and threw his body down a ravine. This was in August 1995, one month after the "fall" of Srebrenica.

Now he's shown his violent behavior in South Dakota.

Wanted man faces extradition

...Sioux Falls police learned that Avdic is wanted as a fugitive from a foreign country after he was arrested on reckless driving and assault charges in March.

According to the federal complaint, a court in Avdic's homeland found him guilty in absentia in December 1998 of shooting and killing Mustafic Munib.

The complaint said Avdic, Munib and Hasic Nedzad were hiding out in caves in summer 1995 while the nearby town of Srebrenica was under siege from Serbian forces.

Avdic and Nedzad thought Munib was hiding salt from them, so they decided to kill him, the complaint said.

"It's a very unusual story because basically what happened was, the Serbian side was taking over the city of Srebrenica by force, and all the Muslims were hiding," said Jesenko Fazlagic of the Bosnian American Society outside Atlanta.

More than 7,000 people were killed in the Srebrenica massacre, which has been described in news reports as the worst war crime committed in Europe since the end of World War II.

Fazlagic said there are about 10,000 to 15,000 Bosnians in the Atlanta area, many of whom immigrated there during the violence of the 1990s. Others settled in major cities such as New York, Chicago and St. Louis, he said.

Sioux Falls' Bosnian population has grown steadily since the late 1990s.

Avdic's troubles in Sioux Falls began March 9 after police received a 911 call around 8 p.m. regarding an incident on East 12th Street.

A man told police that he got into an argument and was punched several times by Avdic. Avdic also is accused of following the man in his car and striking his vehicle, according to Sioux Falls police.

Avdic now faces a far more serious situation - the possibility of being extradited to Europe for the murder conviction.

The U.S. has an extradition treaty with Bosnia-Herzegovina, meaning the U.S. agrees to turn over criminals to them in many cases.

Jeff Martin can be reached at 605-331-2373.