SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Eight people have been arrested in Serbia on suspicion of taking part in the slaughter of more than 1,000 Muslims at a warehouse during the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
The arrests on Wednesday are the first to be carried out in the country in connection with Europe's worst civilian slaughter since World War II.
Police said they were continuing to search for more suspects after launching a series of raids in different locations around the country on the order of the Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes.
Bruno Vekaric, Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor and lead prosecutor in the case, said: "We believe that more than a thousand people were victims of the massacre in 1995."
"The victims of Srebrenica are not forgotten, the perpetrators are not forgotten and this message from Serbia goes out to the world," he said.
He also said Serbian prosecutors were exchanging information with authorities in other countries in the region where other suspects were known to be living.
'Slow justice'
Suhra Malic, a member of the Mothers of Srebrenica which represents 6,000 women who lost family members during the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, said the news of the arrests would give solace to women in the association.
She told Anadolu Agency: "I welcome this morning's arrest, it made us very happy."
"It took 20 years for arrests to be made ... truth and justice are slow, but they are achievable."
"All criminals who committed genocide should be brought to justice and be held accountable for their crimes ... the Serbian government needs to put an end to war criminals being able to hide away," added Suhra, who found the remains of her two sons in the warehouse in Srebrenica.
Suhra, who also lost her husband and 20 other male members of her family - the remains of seven of whom have yet to be found - in the massacre on 13 July, 1995, said that she had previously not had the strength to attend the trials of suspected war criminals conducted at The Hague.
But she said she finally had the strength to look into the eyes of anyone who may later be found guilty of killing her family.
Genocide charges
Hatidza Mehmedovic, the President of the Mothers of Srebrenica, told Anadolu Agency that the families of massacre victims had "hoped that this day would come, so people will have to accept responsibility for any crimes they have committed".
The Mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, said: "The arrest of ... people suspected of crimes in Srebrenica is a step forward but we still have 20,000 people suspected of committing crimes in Srebrenica, according to the previous report by the government of Republika Srpska, and I think the prosecution process of all those 20,000 people will not be completed in our lifetimes."
Between 1,000 and 1,500 Bosniak men were captured by Serb forces on 13 July, 1995, locked in a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural Cooperative in the Bosnian Serb village of Kravica and killed by troops using automatic weapons and grenades.
About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were eventually killed after the Bosnian Serb army attacked Srebenica - designated a UN "safe area" - in July, 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops tasked with acting as UN peacekeepers.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina Court of Appeal Council sentenced in 2013 Dusko Jevic and Mendeljev Djuric to 32 and 28 years in prison respectively on charges of aiding genocide at Srebrenica.
