The arrest of former Bosnian Army commander, Atif Dudakovic, is an „unnecessary humiliation”, Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic said today. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, however, said the arrest came much too late.

The arrest is yet another polarizing issue in Bosnia. Representatives of Bosnaks and Bosnian Serbs reacted very differently to the arrest, which is reflected in the opposite statements the Bosniak and the Serb leaders have given.

Former Commander of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) Atif Dudakovic has been arrested along with 11 other former commanders and members from his Corps early this morning by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in the northwestern town of Bihac. They stand accused of war crimes, committed between 1994 and 1995.

Those war crimes are allegedly related to the killing of hundreds of victims, civilians and captured Bosnian Serb soldiers from the area of the West-Krajina during 1995, as well as war crimes against the civilian population of Bosniak nationality, members of the Autonomous Province West Bosnia during 1994.

Dudakovic is among the few Bosniaks to be accused for war crimes by the state Prosecutors’ Office. Serb leaders, most notably the President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated semi autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Milorad Dodik, have been accusing Bosnia's judiciary for investigating and convicting a disproportionate amount of Bosnian Serbs, compared to Bosniaks.

Accordind to a Friday statement from the cabinet of Bosniak member of the country's tripartite Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, Izetbegovic and his political party are fully determined to support the processing of all war crimes, but they expect Bosnia's judiciary to resist pressure of policies that have the aim of creating an artificial ethnic balance when it comes to who committed war crimes.

This is how historical facts about the 1992-1995 war are being manipulated, he said.

“The arrest of the commander, general Atif Dudakovic, and other members of the Fifth corpus of the Army of RbiH, is an unnecessary humiliation for people who have, throughout the years-long investigation, been available to investigators and regularly replied to all of their calls,” Izetbegovic's cabinet said in a statement.

The statement said they believe Dudakovic and his co-defendants will, in a fair trial, deny all of the accusations put forward against them.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, however, said the arrest should have taken place earlier.

“The descendants of Dudakovic's victims have been waiting for justice for more than 20 years. In the meantime, many died, as dozens of witnesses of his brutal crimes died, and 12 years have passed since I, together with the then President of RS, filed a war crime lawsuit against Atif Dudakovic, whose orders for committing crimes were captured by TV cameras,” he said.

The Court needed 12 years to identify Dudakovic on a video where it appears he is giving orders to commit war crimes, Dodik said.

“Had this arrest taken place right after the public was shown recordings where it can clearly be seen how Dudakovic is giving orders for the crimes, I would believe in the good intentions of the judiciary of Bosnia,” he said.

„As it is, I think that the arrest came too late, and that its concludion remains unknown,” he concluded