Serbia: Seven Held Over Srebrenica Massacre

Seven men have been arrested in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, in which up to 8,000 men and boys were killed.

The most high-profile arrest is reportedly of Nedeljko Milidragovic, the commander known as "Nedjo the Butcher," who went on to become a successful businessman.

Bosnian Muslims pray during a mass funeral for newly identified victims

The men, who were held in various locations across Serbia, are accused of murdering more than 1,000 Bosnian Muslims at a warehouse just outside Srebrenica.

"This is the first such case involving people directly suspected of taking part in the Srebrenica massacre," said Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric.

"There are other suspects in Serbia and neighbouring countries and we are after them as well," he said.

Mejra Cakanovic holds up pictures of her late husband and two sons

He went on: "It is important to stress that this is the first time that our prosecutor's office is dealing with the mass killings of civilians and war prisoners in Srebrenica.

"We have never dealt with a crime of such proportions. It is very important for Serbia to take a clear position toward Srebrenica through a court process."

A dutch peacekeeper in the nearby village of Potocari in 1995

The men are likely to stand trial in Serbia, rather than the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, where Serbia's late President Slobodan Milosevic was on trial when he died.

The arrests are the first in the ex-Yugoslav republic in connection with what was Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. The United Nations has since ruled the murders constituted a genocide.

The men and boys were killed over a number of days following the fall of a UN "safe haven" under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers.

Some 100,000 people died in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which lasted from 1992 until 1995 and was part of a wider conflict that led to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

A man walks past a plaque with the estimated number of those killed

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, captured in 2008 and military commander Ratko Mladic, captured in 2011, are currently on trial for war crimes, including Srebrenica.

But the latest arrests are the first time that Serbia has targeted the men who actually did the killing.

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