War crimes charges filed against 14 Serbs for 1991 murder of 70 Croats

Serbia's war crimes prosecutors filed war crimes charges against 14 former Serb fighters in the killing of 70 Croat civilians in 1991, authorities said Thursday.

The group includes former Yugoslav army soldiers and paramilitary fighters suspected of "torture, inhuman treatment and killing" of the Croats in a border town in Croatia during the war there, prosecutors said in a statement.

Croatian investigations have discovered dozens of bodies in mass graves in the village of Lovas, apparently killed in October and November 1991 when the Serbs controlled the area.

The Serbian prosecutors charged the Serb fighters with killing 22 Croats by forcing them to march over a minefield as a human shield. Another 48 villagers were shot dead in their houses, on the streets or in detention, the statement said.

Out of the 14 charged Serbs, seven have been detained by Serbian police. There was no immediate information about the remaining seven suspects.

The war in Croatia erupted in 1991, when the republic declared independence from the Yugoslav federation, triggering a Serb rebellion backed by the Serb-led Yugoslav army. The war lasted until 1995.

Prosecution of those responsible for atrocities in the war became possible after the removal of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 by Serbia's pro-democracy forces.