US deports Bosnia war crimes suspect

25 May 2012, 5:32 am   -   Source: AAP

The US has deported a former Bosnian Serb police commander accused of playing a leading role in the massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

A former Bosnian Serb police commander accused of playing a leading role in the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica has been deported to his native country.

Dejan Radojkovic arrived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, aboard a commercial airline from Las Vegas accompanied by federal agents, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley said on Thursday.

"He's wanted on genocide charges," said another ICE spokeswoman, Nicole Navas.

Radojkovic was turned over to Bosnia-Herzegovina law enforcement officials for prosecution on crimes charges related to the execution of Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica - an event described as Europe's bloodiest since World War II.

Authorities preparing for the trial of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic on war crimes charges at The Hague, Netherlands, said this month that the remains of almost 6000 people had been exhumed from mass graves in the Srebrenica area. Estimates of the dead run as high as 8000.

Bosnian Serb forces are blamed for overrunning peacekeepers in July 1995 in a United Nations-designated "safe area" in Srebrenica and executing Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Prosecutors allege Radojkovic commanded a special police brigade that rounded up about 200 Muslim men in the nearby Konjevic Polje region for execution, an ICE statement said. He moved to the United States in 1999.

"For the families who lost loved ones at Srebrenica, justice has been a long time coming," ICE director John Morton said in the statement, "but they can take consolation in the fact that those responsible for this tragedy are now being held accountable."

Morton also pointed to the January 2010 deportation to Bosnia-Herzegovina of Nedjo Ikonic, identified as another former special police commander linked to the Srebrenica massacre.

Investigators found that Ikonic was Radojkovic's police commander, Navas said.

Mladic is standing trial before a military war tribunal on wider charges related to atrocities during a process called "ethnic cleansing". Bosnia's 1992-95 war following the breakup of the former Soviet republic of Yugoslavia left more than 100,000 dead.

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