County police chief Vladimir Faber said the police took into custody six and not some 30 persons as speculated in the media.
He said that after 15 years it was finally discovered who killed the civilians in Osijek who were then thrown into the Drava river with their hands tied and Sellotape across their mouths.
County police spokeswoman Edita Roterbauer said the six arrested were suspected of killing Branko Lovric, Radoslav Ratkovic, Milutin Kutlic, Alija Sabanovic and a number of unidentified persons.
Declining to reveal the identities of those arrested, Roterbauer only said they were aged from 38 to 64 and that among them was one woman.
They are suspected of violating international law out of revenge against Osijek's Serb residents by unlawfully arresting, detaining, maltreating and killing civilians of Serb and other nationalities as members of Samostalna Uskocka Satnija.
A 64-year-old man is charged with giving orders to a 38-year-old woman, who conveyed them to subordinate company members verbally or in writing. Those subordinates apprehended, detained, tortured and killed civilians, the police said.
Faber said an investigation was launched earlier this week at the request of the State Prosecutor's Office and that the public was not informed in the interest of the investigation. He added the investigation was still under way.