Who is Atif Dudakovic, the man arrested for war crimes over Serbs? He was inviting Bosniaks for war (PHOTO) (VIDEO)

Former commander of the Fifth Corps of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Army, Atif Dudakovic, who was arrested on Friday morning with another 12 people in the "Sana 95" operation, conducted by the Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), has been "under investigation" for years for war crimes committed against Serb and Bosniak civilians during the war in BiH.

New accusations about the war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Two people are accused of monstrosities over Serbs during the bloody conflicts

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Even after the war, Dudakovic has been in the center of attention for many years because of his predatory and hostile statements, especially after the disclosure of video footage where he orders executions.

His invitation to all Bosniaks older than 17 to arm themselves has attracted a lot of attention, he said that the war is not over and that the shooting just stopped. 

- What are these fights and temptations we are going through and the ones that we will yet to go through? What should be done? Is there danger? There is! A lot of dangers - Dudakovic said at the forum organized by the local veterans in the framework of marking the Day of the Juvenile Volunteers of the so-called Army of BiH.

At the beginning of last year, Dudakovic invited Bosniaks from Western Europe to prepare for the war in a speech to representatives of the Bosniak diaspora in Luxembourg, saying that they would personally engage "in the connecting of those who are ready to resist the Greater Serbia aggression".

He then said that every Bosniak, who is more than 17 years old, must buy uniform, boots, sleeping bag and backpack. 

The investigation for crimes Dudakovic's fighters committed over captured Serbs, and Bosniaks from the formerly autonomous province Western Bosnia, has been lasting for 12 years in the Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecution.

Foto: Profimedia/AFP

Dudakovic's name appeared again when SIPA started searching the barracks Orljani in Bihac last year as part of an investigation into war crimes against Serbs. The war archive of the Fifth Corps is located in those barracks.

Televisions in the region published videos twice where Dudakovic is seen as a participant and orderer of war crimes. However, he was free up to this day.

He was born on December 2, 1953, in the village of Orahovo, in the vicinity of the then Bosanska Gradiska. He graduated from the Military High School in Zadar, and in 1976 he graduated from the Military Academy, the artillery department.

 He was in Zadar at the beginning of the war in 1991, in Artillery school center, after which he went to Knin. It is there where he got the rank of captain and the position of the artillery commander under the command of the then-captain of the first class, Ratko Mladic.

In April 1992 he became commander of the Municipal Territorial Defense of Bihac, then commander of the Second Muslim-Croat Infantry Brigade.

In the war in BiH, he was promoted to the brigade and then to the divisional general, and on 1 November 1993, he was appointed the commander of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina based in Bihac. 

The units under his command defeated the units of Fikret Abdic's Western Bosnia. After the war, he was the commander of the Joint Command of the Army of the Federation of BiH.

BN TV broadcast earlier videos, created on 9 July 1994, where members of the National Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia can be seen, captured by the Fifth Corps in Action in Izacic led by Dudakovic.

Dudakovic, surrounded by soldiers, asked where two prisoners were, and when he received the answer that they were in the truck, he issued an order: "Shoot on sight!"

Criminal charges were filed by the former President and Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Dragan Cavic and Milorad Dodik, against Dukanovic back, back in 2006. When the televisions published recordings when Dukanovic orders houses to be burned.

Dudakovic had previously stated that he was not aware of what subordinate units did.

Radio Television of Serbia showed in August 2006 video footage showing members of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the command of Dudakovic, burning Serb villages in Bosanska Krajina, in the continued "Operation Storm", on September 16 and 17, 1995.

According to the data of the Commission for the Search of Missing Persons in the Republika Srpska, about 870 Serb civilians and 400 soldiers were killed and more than 30 villages were burned in this action in the municipalities of Petrovac, Bihac, Bosanska Krupa, Sanski Most and Kljuc. 

A representative of the Missing Persons Office of Republika Srpska Milan Ivancevic said that in those actions, 1,200 Serbs were killed, of which 870 were civilians, while 830 persons were missing. In this area, 21 mass graves of Serbs were found, which were killed by the members of the Fifth Corps of the Army of BiH.

Due to the slow pace of the investigation, the question "Who protects Dudakovic" has been raised several times in public.

Belgrade lawyer Tom Fila, for example, claimed (and the US Embassy immediately denounced) that the former commander of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be charged with war crimes because it is not allowed by the Americans.

- Dudakovic worked with the Americans. They armed and trained him and he was a dangerous man. It is clear why he won't be put to trial because he can start talking that Americans brought weapons to Tuzla airport and who trained Muslim fighters - Fila said at the time.

Milorad Dodik believed that "someone was protecting" Dudakovic and that he, therefore, felt safe in Bihac and BiH, and, as he pointed out, "he was supposed to be processed a long time ago".

The president of the Commission for researching of war crimes at the area of Bihac and Cazin, Rifat Dolic, claimed that the investigation against Dudakovic is coming to an end, and that it is the question of moment when charges will be filed against the general for war crimes committed in the area of Bihad and Cazin during the war in BiH.

Dolic said that the Commission started gathering material right after the war and that many victims of the Fifth Corps have left this area due to the exodus. He stressed that many information remained in the Fifth Corps, but that they collected about 200 direct statements of victims and witnesses and a large number of audio and video recordings.

A part of this documentation was handed over in 1999 to the Office of the Hague Tribunal in Sarajevo, but no action was taken by The Hague.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)