BELGRADE, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Belgrade said Monday it has begun investigating two former Serb paramilitaries suspected of murdering elderly civilians in Croatia during its war of independence.

Serbia's war crimes prosecution launched the probe after it received evidence that the suspects had shot dead six civilians in the central Croatian village of Banski Kovacevac in March 1992.

THE HAGUE, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga, accused of massacres, using child soldiers and turning women into sex slaves, is to make his first appearance on Monday before the International Criminal Court.

Katanga, 29, arrived in The Hague Thursday after being handed over to the ICC by Congolese authorities in Kinshasa. He is only the second person to be transferred to the custody of the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court.

THE HAGUE, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga will on Monday become only the second person to appear before the International Criminal Court to face accusations of massacres, using child soldiers and turning women into sex slaves.

Katanga, 29, arrived in The Hague Thursday after being handed over to the ICC by Congolese authorities in Kinshasa.

The prosecution accuses Katanga of massacring villagers, using child soldiers and sexually enslaving women in the northeastern Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

THE HAGUE, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief Germain Katanga, who was transferred to the International Criminal Court, is a 'small fish' and Congolese NGOs called Friday for the ICC to pursue their probe and issue more arrest warrants.

KIGALI, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Rwanda called on France on Friday to extradite a Rwandan wanted for his alleged role in the country's 1994 genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, a former sub-prefect in the southern Gisagara region during the mass killings, was arrested by French police in Carcassonne, south-west France, Interpol said Thursday.

The ICTR has charged him with genocide, complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide by the UN tribunal.

BELGRADE, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Four former members of an elite Serbian police unit were arrested over the 1999 massacre of 14 Kosovo Albanians, including women and children, authorities said Friday.

'The four were arrested over the massacre in Podujevo,' police spokeswoman Dragana Kajganic told AFP. Podujeov is the northern Kosovo town in which the atrocity occurred on March 28, 1999.

The four suspects were all members of the notorious 'Scorpions' special police unit.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The Bosnian Serb government ordered a wider campaign Thursday to unearth mass graves of victims of Serb forces during the country's 1992-1995 war.

The task of finding the sites was handed to the Bosnian Serb entity's interior ministry and police force, which were told to begin by forming working groups, Deputy Prime Minister Anton Kasipovic said.

THE HAGUE, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief accused of war crimes arrived at the detention centre of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Thursday after his transfer from Kinshasa, an ICC spokeswoman told AFP.

'He arrived around noon at the detention centre,' court spokeswoman Sonja Robla told AFP.

Germain Katanga, 29, who once led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity commited in the north-eastern Ituri region of the DR Congo.

KINSHASA, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday transferred a militia chief to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face war crimes charges, including sexual enslavement and using child soldiers.

Germain Katanga, 29, who once led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), was flown out of Kinshasa early Thursday, a senior ICC official in the capital said.

KINSHASA, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday transferred a militia chief to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face war crimes charges, including sexual enslavement and using child soldiers.

Germain Katanga, 29, who once led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), was flown out of Kinshasa early Thursday, a senior ICC official in the capital said.

THE HAGUE, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The transfer of a Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Thursday shows war criminals in the African country that they will be prosecuted, the ICC prosecutor said.

'The DRC is still engulfed in violence. There is forced displacement of people, sexual violence of shocking brutality, and killings. It must stop. Perpetrators must know they will be prosecuted,' prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

BELGRADE, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - An ethnic Albanian accused of taking part in the murder nine years ago of eight Serbs whose bodies were found in a Kosovo cave went on trial here Wednesday, Beta news agency reported.

Sinan Morina pleaded not guilty before Serbia's special war crimes court to the charges related to the killings, which took place in the northwestern Kosovo village of Opterusa in July 1998.

He is also accused of detaining, torturing and raping Serb civilians, as well as destroying property and religious sites, according to the indictment.

BRUSSELS, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Serbian authorities have received 'tips' about former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic but have made no breakthrough in their search for him, a Serbian minister said Wednesday.

'There have been tips, information, but no result yet,' said Rasim Ljajic, the minister charged with cooperation with the UN war crimes court.

THE HAGUE, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The UN war crimes court will hand down an appeals judgement Tuesday in the case of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army's ex-chief of staff who was acquitted of murder charges in 2005.

Sefer Halilovic, 55, is one of the highest-ranking Bosnian Muslim officials to have appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

The prosecution says Halilovic was responsible for the killings of Bosnian Croats by troops under his command in the villages of Uzdol and Grabovica in central Bosnia in 1993.

SARAJEVO, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - A Bosnian court on Monday jailed a former Serb policeman for seven years after finding him guilty of committing atrocities against civilians and prisoners, an official said.

Branislav Berjan, a police commander during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, was found guilty of personally ordering executions of non-Serb civilians and prisoners, Sarajevo county court spokesman Slobodan Nikolic told AFP.

He was involved in the expulsion, torture and illegal imprisonment of non-Serbs in the Sarajevo suburb of Ilidza, according to the verdict.

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal has improved but 'is still too slow', the court's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Monday.

'I confirm that the situation today is better than it was a year ago,' Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), told EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg.

'However, cooperation is still too slow and not yet sufficient,' she said.

BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission could initial a key agreement on closer EU ties with Serbia if Belgrade boosts cooperation with the UN War Crimes court, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Friday.

The Commission and Serbia concluded on September 10 the technical aspects of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) -- a first step for Balkans states to join the EU -- but Brussels refuses to sign it.

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia has put a one million-euro (1.4 million-dollar) bounty on the head of Ratko Mladic, the government said Friday, just days before Brussels receives a report on its war crimes cooperation.

The decision to offer the reward for information leading to Mladic's arrest was aimed at showing Belgrade's willingness to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, the minister in charge of the issue, told Beta news agency.

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia has put up a reward of one million euros (1.4 million dollars) for information leading to the capture of Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, Beta news agency reported Friday.

The decision was made by Serbia's National Security Council and was aimed at showing Belgrade's willingness to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal, Beta said, citing Rasim Ljajic, the minister in charge of the cooperation.

THE HAGUE, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Relatives of Croat victims of the 1992 Vukovar massacre protested Thursday outside the UN court in The Hague against the leniency of sentences handed out to three men convicted for their roles in the killings.

Around 100 relatives, who flew in from Croatia earlier Thursday, lit candles and prayed as they stood in a circle holding up pictures of the 264 people killed during the massacre.

ZAGREB, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A local court sentenced Thursday a former member of rebel Serb forces to 10 years in prison for war crimes committed at the outbreak of the 1991-95 Serbo-Croatian war.

Nenad Tepavac, 43, was found guilty of killing a Croatian civilian near the central town of Slunj in November 1991 and maltreating other civilians, a Karlovac court spokeswoman Alenka Laptalo told AFP.

He was arrested in May.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A Bosnian minister expressed concern Thursday about the worsening medical condition of a group of war crimes prisoners whose hunger strike has entered a second month.

'All prisoners are under constant medical supervision, but if they don't end their hunger strike very soon their lives will be endangered,' Bosnian Serb deputy justice minister Bosko Djukic told the daily Nezavisne Novine.

Twenty-one of the inmates, including a man who had suffered kidney failure, are refusing to accept food in the protest.

THE HAGUE, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Prosecutors at the UN war crimes court have demanded a life sentence for general Dragomir Milosevic who led part of the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo while his defence sought acquittal Wednesday.

Milosevic, 65, was in command for 15 months of the blockade of Sarajevo which lasted for most of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

'Only the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment would adequately reflect the criminal liability of the accused,' prosecutor Stefan Weaspi said during his closing argument Tuesday.

SARAJEVO, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Remains believed to account for more than 220 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre have been exhumed from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia, a forensic expert said Wednesday.

'We have just completed the exhumation of the grave' that was discovered three weeks ago, Murat Hurtic of Bosnia's Missing Persons Commission told AFP.

Thirty-four complete and 192 incomplete skeletons had been exhumed from the burial site in the village of Zeleni Jadar, about 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of Srebrenica, Hurtic said.

FREETOWN, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - The prosecution at the UN-backed court for Sierra Leone Wednesday said it may appeal the light jail terms handed to two former militia bosses for atrocities during the west African nation's savage civil war.

Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF) -- a notorious pro-government force which recruited traditional hunters to fight rebels during the 1991-2001 conflict -- were Tuesday jailed for six and eight years respectively.

SARAJEVO, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Bosnian police on Wednesday arrested a Serb suspected of committing war crimes during the Balkan country's conflict in the early 1990s, a local court said.

Predrag Kujundzic, 46, was detained in the northern town of Doboj on suspicion of having committed 'war crimes against Muslim and Croat civilians', the prosecutor's office of the Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina said in a statement.

The alleged crimes took place in Doboj in 1992 and 1993.

FREETOWN, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - The UN-backed war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone on Tuesday jailed for six and eight years two former commanders of a tribal-based militia force that supported government troops during a gruesome civil war.

Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), a notorious paramilitary force which recruited traditional Kamajor hunter militias to fight rebel forces during the 1991-2001 conflict, were jailed for six and eight years, respectively.

ZAGREB, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - The retrial of a former Croatian policeman convicted of a triple murder that many believe helped fuel the outbreak of the Balkan state's 1991-1995 war opened before a local court on Tuesday.

Antun Gudelj pleaded not guilty before a court in Osijek to the charges of killing the eastern town's police chief Josip Reihl-Kir and two local ethnic Serb politicians in July 1991, national radio reported.

THE HAGUE, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will present her latest evaluation of Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal to the European Union on Monday, her spokeswoman said.

'At the invitation of the Portuguese EU presidency the prosecutor will present her evaluation of Serbia's cooperation' at a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers, spokeswoman Olga Kavran said Tuesday.

Ahead of the meeting Del Ponte will meet with EU Enlargement Commissioner Oli Rehn, who is in The Hague for meetings Thursday.

ZAGREB, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Monday he will protest before the UN General Assembly next week over a UN court's rulings in a trial over the 1991 Vukovar massacre.

'The prime minister will attend the (UN) session' on October 15, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said after meeting with Sanader.

'Vukovar victims demand justice, and if this verdict remains then justice would not be served and the purpose of the (UN) tribunal would not be fulfilled,' the HINA news agency quoted Sanader as saying.

THE HAGUE, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - The UN war crimes court on Friday warned that the health of Srebrenica genocide suspect Zdravko Tolimir was 'highly alarming' and said there was a serious risk of a 'life threatening episode'.

Tolimir has told judges that he suffers cerebral infarctions but the registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said he had refused medical care since being transferred to The Hague in June.

ZAGREB, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - Croatian police issued an international warrant on Friday for the arrest of a former Serb army captain who was acquitted last week by the UN war crimes tribunal.

'The arrest warrant for Miroslav Radic was issued following a demand by a Vukovar court,' police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec told AFP.

An investigative judge of the court suspects Radic is responsible for war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war committed in the eastern town of Vukovar at the start of Croatia's 1991-1995 independence war.

SARAJEVO, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The wife of fugitive Serb genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic has urged him to surrender and put an end to the constant 'harassment' of his family, a Bosnian weekly reported Thursday.

'All we want is for this to end, we want Radovan to surrender or to be arrested,' Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic told the magazine Slobodna Bosna.

'As his family, we have nothing against his surrender but we also have no influence over the situation,' she added.

SARAJEVO, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The remains of what are believed to be more than 120 Muslim victims of the Srebrenica massacre have been exhumed from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia, a forensic expert said Thursday.

'So far we have exhumed 19 complete and 105 incomplete skeletons,' Murat Hurtic of Bosnia's Missing Persons Commission told AFP.

The grave, located outside the village of Zeleni Jadar, about 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of Srebrenica, is thought to contain the remains of at least another 50 people, he said.

THE HAGUE, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, on trial for war crimes at the UN court here since March, has been released for four days to attend a funeral, the UN court said Wednesday

Haradinaj, the former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), will return to Kosovo Wednesday and stay until October 7, Liam McDowall, senior policy advisor for the registry of the UN court, told a weekly press briefing.

THE HAGUE, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Wednesday that she is increasingly worried about the slow progress of Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal.

'Although we have seen some results in the past four months progress has been rather slow,' she said in a statement.

'I am increasingly worried that this slow progress will not lead to a positive outcome.'

FREETOWN, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - A UN-backed war crimes tribunal will next week hand down sentences on Allieu Kondewa and Moinina Fofana, two leaders of a former pro-government militia group next week, the court said on Tuesday.

The two ex-leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), a paramilitary force which recruited traditional Kamajor hunters to fight rebel forces during the 1991-2001 conflict, have been convicted of war crimes.