Bosnia: Police Launch Search in Foca

SIPA conducted the search on February 18 on an order from the State Prosecutor's Office. Police searched several places in Foca as part of an investigation into war crimes committed in the city during the Bosnian war.

According to news agency FENA, the house of Drago Todorovic, a local journalist, was searched and a number of documents were taken away. 

Speaking to BN television after SIPA's operation, Todorovic said that some of his notes and reportages he published in Serbian media outlets during the war had been taken.

Todorovic was not at home during the search. He also told BH television that he could not comment on what SIPA and the State Prosecutor were doing, since “they are doing their job, like I did mine during the war.”

Todorovic was a local reporter during the war and a correspondent for Novi Sad (Serbia) television. He still works as a journalist.

Last August members of the Association of Women Victims of War filed a suit against Todorovic after he verbally attacked a group of women who came to Foca with the intention of marking the place where war crimes were committed.

Foca is notorious for mass rapes against girls and young women committed mostly between 1992 and 1993.

War crimes cases in Bosnia have been under the jurisdiction of the state court and prosecution since 2004.

No investigation has ever been initiated in Bosnia against a journalist for taking part in inciting hatred during the war. However, Serbian prosecution initiated one such investigation last year. The names of people who are under investigation have still not been made public.