The CNAB, the IRGC, and the BAGI welcome the news of the extradition to B&H of war criminal Aleksandar Cvetkovic by the Israeli government
Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: August 2, 2011
The CNAB, the IRGC, and the BAGI welcome the news of the extradition to Bosnia and Herzegovina of the war criminal Aleksandar Cvetkovic by the Israeli government
The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB), the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IRGC), and the Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center (BAGI) welcome the news of the extradition of Aleksandar Cvetkovic by the Israeli government following an extradition request by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aleksandar Cvetkovic is a Bosnian Serb who moved to Israel in 2006 and is accused of direct involvement in the cold blooded execution of more than 1,000 Bosniak civilians in the Srebrenica Genocide. After the fall of Srebrenica, a United Nations “protected enclave”, more than 8,000 unarmed Bosniaks were executed over several days and buried in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia. This is the worst single atrocity in Europe since the Holocaust and documented by the International Court of Justice as an act of genocide.
We expect swift prosecution of this monstrous war criminal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He managed to escape for more than 15 years. This arrest follows the news of another Bosnian Serb, Branko Popic, who was arrested in Florida, United States of America, for lying to the Immigration authorities of his involvement in the Genocide and extradited to Sarajevo to face justice. We are also pleased that another suspect, Bozidar Kuvelja, was arrested on Min the Bosnian town of Cajnice. We are pleased with the governments of Canada and USA continiously seeking war criminals hiding in those countries. To date, a total of 14 suspects have been convicted of war crimes in the Srebrenica Genocide by the he UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and another 12 by the Bosnian war crimes court with 11 others awaiting verdict.
Justice has been too slow considering that more than 8,000 Bosniak civilians were brutally murdered in the area of Srebrenica only, with more than 100,000 Bosnian citizens killed, many more wounded, and over 1,200,000 expelled from their homes. We call upon the international community to act with a higher sense of urgency in arresting all suspected war criminals and extraditing them to Bosnia and Herzegovina to face justice. Furthermore, we urge the authorities to interrogate the suspects in order to bring about more arrests. More needs to be done by the Serb authorities and those Serbs who witnessed war crimes but have yet to come forward. It is imperative that the entire community comes together to make sure war criminals are not roaming the world as free men. There can be no peace and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina until war criminals are brought to justice.
Haris Alibasic, MPA, President
Congress of North American Bosniaks
www.bosniak.org
Prof. Emir Ramic, President
Institute for Research of Genocide Canada
www.instituteforgenocide.ca
Sanja Seferovic-Drnovsek J.D, MEd, Chair
Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center
www.baginst.com
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An Israeli court ruled on Monday that Aleksandar Cvetkovic, a former Serbian soldier could be extradited to Bosnia to face genocide charges for involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre
Aleksandar Cvetkovic, 42, a former soldier in the Army of Republika Srpska, a Bosnian Serb force, covers his face before his remand hearing at the District Court on January 19, 2022 in Jerusalem, Israel. Cvetkovic is suspected of taking part in a massacre of up to 1200 Bosniaks at Branjevo farm, which made part of a series of mass murders known as the Srebrenica genocide. A request for Cvetkovic’s extradition was issued by the Bosnia- Herzegovina government and Israeli authorities subsequently captured and arrested him. In July 1995 the Bosniak enclave which was declared ‘safe area’ by the UN was over-run by Serbian forces who massacred 8,372 people. Cvetkovic (Bosnian Serb) moved to Israel in 2006 with his Jewish wife and became a citizen.
Aleksandar Cvetkovic [also known as Aleksandar Spintkovitz], a Bosnian Serb living in the Jewish state since 2006, was arrested in January on an international warrant issued over testimony he helped systematically execute 8,372 Bosniak men and boys in Europe’s worst massacre since the Holocaust, the Srebrenica genocide.
Israel to extradite Bosnian Serb over Srebrenica
01 Aug 2021 12:38
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Reuters) - An Israeli court ruled on Monday that an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia could be extradited to Bosnia to face genocide charges for involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, though he can appeal the move.
Aleksandar Cvetkovic, a Bosnian Serb living in the Jewish state since 2006, was arrested in January on an international warrant issued over testimony he helped shoot some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two.
Cvetkovic says that while he served as an army driver when Srebrenica, formerly a U.N.-protected zone, fell to the Serbs during the 1992-95 civil war, he is innocent of the slaughter.
He has 30 days in which to try to appeal against the Jerusalem District Court’s decision at the Israeli Supreme Court, whose final ruling could take months.
“One of our major arguments was that the genocidal intent was not made out in his case,” said Nick Kaufman, one of Cvetkovic’s lawyers. “We have to learn the judge’s decision and see whether or not an appeal is justified here.”
Cvetkovic would be extradited to a court in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, set up in 2005 to relieve the burden on the Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The two courts have prosecuted dozens of Bosnian Serbs over Srebrenica.
Among these is former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, who was arrested by Serbia in May and extradited to The Hague. Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, arrested in 2008, is also on trial for Srebrenica and the Serb siege of Sarajevo. Both men deny wrongdoing.
Cvetkovic’s unprecedented case has piqued interest in Israel, with its founding memories of the Holocaust and more recent pro-Palestinian efforts to prosecute its military commanders for alleged war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza.
Cvetkovic’s marriage to a Jewish woman, with whom he has children, helped him secure Israeli citizenship.
The Bosnian state prosecutor’s office, citing testimony from other Serb soldiers, said he was believed to have taken part in shooting more than 800 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica.
According to evidence cited in the Jerusalem District Court’s 56-page ruling, Cvetkovic had “said that this execution is proceeding slowly and that they should also start to use the M-84 machinegun,” a suggestion taken up by his comrades.
The Jerusalem District Court conditioned his extradition on assurances by Sarajevo regarding incarceration standards there.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
