Milan Kovacevic
Encyclopedia
Prijedor
Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
– August 1, 1998, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
) was the President of the Executive Committee of the Municipal Assembly of Prijedor
Prijedor
Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....
from January 1991 to March 1993. He also served as the Vice President of the Municipality of Prijedor Crisis Staff after the Crisis Staff took over control of the town of Prijedor
Prijedor
Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....
in April 1992. He was an anesthesiologist by profession and most recently served as the Director of the Prijedor Medical Center, after his resignation as President of the Executive Committee in March 1993.
As the Vice President of the Crisis Staff, Kovačević played a key role in the crimes that occurred in the Municipality of Prijedor between April and August 1992, most importantly the establishment and operation of concentration camps targeted for Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, including the Omarska
Omarska camp
Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serb forces, in Omarska, a mining town near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up during the Prijedor massacre for Bosniak and Croat men and women. Functioning in the first months of the Bosnian War in 1992, it was one of 677...
, Keraterm
Keraterm camp
Keraterm camp was a concentration camp near the town of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War and genocide from 1992 to 1995. The camp was founded by the authorities of Republika Srpska and was used to collect and confine civilians of Bosniak and Bosnian Croat...
and Trnopolje
Trnopolje camp
Trnopolje camp was a concentration camp established in the village of Trnopolje near the city of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first months of the Bosnian War.-History:...
camps.
ICTY Indictment
Kovačević was indictedIndictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
in 1997 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, complicity to commit genocide and several counts of crimes against humanity, violations of the laws of war
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
of 1949. He was captured, together with co-accused Simo Drljaća, by British Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
(SAS) troops and U.S. Navy SEALs on 10 July 1997 in SFOR
SFOR
The Stabilisation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR...
's Operation Tango
He died of natural causes in detention in 1998.