Bosnian woman charged with killing boy

SARAJEVO: A Bosnian woman on Friday became one of just a dozen female former fighters to be indicted for war crimes during the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

Recently extradited from Switzerland, Elfeta Veseli, 57, was charged with killing a 12-year-old boy “in a particularly cruel manner” in Bosnia’s east in the summer of 1992.

Veseli was at the time a member of a sabotage unit among the Bosnian Muslim forces.

Her superior, 58-year-old Sakib Halilovic, was also indicted for letting her kill the teenaged Serb.

The Yugoslav wars left 130,000 people dead — 100,000 of them in Bosnia’s 1992-1995 civil conflict.

Kosovo-born Veseli was arrested in Switzerland in September last year.

According to local media, she killed Slobodan Stojanovic while he was fleeing with his parents as Muslim forces advanced.

But when he realised he had left his dog at home, he turned back and was killed.

In a separate trial on Friday, Bosnia’s war crimes tribunal sentenced three former members of the Bosnian Serb forces for war crimes, including rape and torture, against Muslims in the country’s north. AFP