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Bosnia arrests five suspects over Srebrenica massacre

8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered in Srebrenica in July 1995
8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered in Srebrenica in July 1995

Bosnian police have arrested five former soldiers suspected of participating in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

Prosecutors said that police had raided several locations across the country's east.

Officials described the suspects as "former commanders and members" of Bosnian Serb forces.

It said they allegedly "participated in the arrest and murder of approximately 70 victims" in July 1995, according to a statement released by the country's war crimes prosecutor's office.

The suspects are also accused of having "carried out activities to conceal the bodies of those killed".

Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica, which was then a UN-protected enclave, on 11 July 1995.

In the following days, they summarily killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys, in an act labelled as a genocide by two international courts.

The remains of most of the victims were later found in mass graves in eastern Bosnia, where the perpetrators moved them from original burial sites to cover up the crime.

Following the brutal war from 1992 to 1995 that claimed some 100,000 lives, Bosnia has been divided along ethnic lines.

One half of the country belongs to the Serb entity while the other is ruled by a Muslim-Croat federation.

A UN court sentenced both Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic, to life in prison, notably for their role in Srebrenica.

Political leaders of Serbs living in Bosnia today and in neighbouring Serbia refuse to accept that a genocide took place at Srebrenica, preferring to call it a "major crime".

More than 50 people have been convicted by international and local courts in Bosnia and Serbia for their roles in the massacre, according to a report by the Srebrenica Memorial Centre.