The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an order for an international warrant for Milenko Zivanovic, the former Bosnian Serb Army commander, accused of crimes against humanity committed in the eastern area of Srebrenica and Zepa in July 1995, Detektor website reported.

After Zivanovic failed to appear in the courtroom three times, the State Prosecutor's Office requested the issuing of an international warrant and detention for the suspect.

Although Zivanovic's attorney Petko Pavlovic opposed these measures, the State Court then issued a decision ordering custody. The defense filed an appeal against this decision, but it was rejected as ungrounded.

Once it ordered the detention, the Court also requested the remaining documentation required for an international warrant and, after it was delivered, it issued an order for an international warrant for Zivanovic.

Zivanovic currently lives in Serbia and he has not responded to any of three judicial summons for the plea hearing.

In December 2021, Bosnia's Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Zivanovic for participating in a broad and systematic attack against the Bosniak civilian population of the protected zones of Srebrenica and Zepa, during which the Bosnian Serb Army and police forces carried out an operation to permanently and forcibly relocate the civilian population from those zones, an operation to capture and murder about 8,000 men. The indictment was later confirmed by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the indictment, Zivanovic, as commander of the Drina Corps, planned and directed the activities of subordinate units in his area of responsibility. His successor as corps commander, Radislav Krstic, is the first person convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to 35 years in prison.

Proceedings against Zivanovic for the crimes committed in Srebrenica are also conducted by the judiciary in Serbia, and according to the indictment of the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes, he is accused of having ordered and participated in the forced relocation of the civilian population of Bosniak nationality in July 1995. In the proceedings conducted before the High Court in Belgrade, several witnesses have been heard so far, and the continuation of the trial is planned for September 22.

The Hague Tribunal, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the judiciary in Serbia and Croatia have so far sentenced a total of 54 people – to five life sentences and 781 years in prison – for genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in July 1995 in Srebrenica, according to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).