Prosecutors on Friday charged the 15 Serb suspects with a number of crimes, including murder, rape, looting and the destruction of property. The crimes allegedly took place in 1992, at the start of the inter-ethnic war in Bosnia. According to the prosecution, the suspects took part in a wide and systematic attack on the Bosnian Muslim population in the village of Zecovi, not far from the city of Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia.

The bodies of some of the victims were buried in a mass grave at Tomasica, in the same region. The soldiers and officers were also charged with massacring 29 women and children, whose remains are yet to be found.

"It is one of the largest indictments for war crimes in the region of Prijedor", a statement issued by the prosecutors' office said.

Three of the suspects still 'in hiding'

The grave in Tomasica is one the largest mass graves uncovered so far from the 1992-1995 war. Forensic experts have so far exhumed 450 bodies out of the abandoned mine, with some estimates putting the body count as high as 900 – Muslims as well as Croats.

Hundreds of Muslim villagers from Zecovi were taken to detention camps, where they suffered abuse and some were even killed. All of the 701 Bosnian Muslims who lived in Zecovi prior to the war were driven out of the village.

In addition to the 15 suspects already in custody, the prosecutors announced that they planned to issue an international arrest warrant for three more suspects who are allegedly in hiding.

Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and the former head of the Bosnian Serb army, General Ratko Mladic are on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Among other things, they are facing charges in connection with their alleged roles in wartime atrocities committed in the Prijedor region.

dj/pfd (FENA, AFP)