One-Month Detention for Suspects in Bijeljina Children Shooting

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The State Court ordered a one-month detention for Goran Sarić and six other suspects for the murder of 22 civilians in Bijeljina during 1992, confirmed for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH).

Prosecutor Ivan Matešić confirmed to BIRN BiH that a one-month detention was ordered for Goran Sarić, former commander of the Special Police Brigade of the Republika Srpska (RS), who was previously acquitted in two cases for genocide in Srebrenica and crimes in Sarajevo.

At the hearing held before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Matešić stated, detention was also ordered for Živan Miljanović, assistant commander of the Public Security Station (SJB) Bijeljina, Stevo Bokarić, member of the State Security Service Bijeljina, Jovica Petrović and Mirko Simić, members of the SJB Intervention Platoon, and Ljubo Marković and Slavenko Kočević, members of the Special Platoon of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Republika Srpska, the so-called "Pahuljice".

As he said, the detention was requested due to influence on witnesses and the possibility of the suspects fleeing.

Sarić and the others were arrested yesterday, December 3.

As previously announced by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, they are suspected of murdering 22 persons of Bosniak nationality, among whom were seven children and eight women.

According to information from BIRN BiH, the arrested are suspected of the murders of the Sarajlić, Sejmenović and Malagić families, who were taken from their homes in the Bijeljina neighborhood of Bukreš. The victims were killed at dawn on September 25, 1992, in the village of Balatun on the banks of the Drina in the Bijeljina area.

In the cemetery in Sremska Mitrovica in 2002, the remains of 13 bodies were found, buried under NN markings. By 2011, 18 victims were found and buried, while four are still listed as missing.