The wartime mayor of the Bosnian town of Trebinje, Bozidar Vucurevic, said on Monday it was "good" that he was arrested in Serbia, as he would have the chance to prove that he was not responsible for war crimes committed in the Dubrovnik area, southernmost Croatia, in the early 1990s.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Bosnian state TV BHT 1, Vucurevic confirmed that upon his arrest earlier today at a Bosnian-Serbian border crossing, he was taken to an investigating judge in Sabac, who is expected to decide whether to place him in custody over a warrant issued by Croatia.
He said the "lies about Dubrovnik" and the accusations against him were "insinuated by Serb-haters" and that he could defend himself.
The Serb Democratic Party, of which Vucurevic was one of the founders together with Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, asked today that Vucurevic be released immediately.
The party said the real war criminals were people like Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda and retired Bosnian Army general Jovan Divjak.
The party asked the president of the Bosnian Serb entity, Milorad Dodik, to urge Serbia's authorities to release Vucurevic so that he could not be turned over to Croatia.
