POLICE ARREST CROATIAN SERB POLICE OFFICER SUSPECTED OF GENOCIDE

VINKOVCI, Jan 4 (Hina) - Dusan U. (born in 1958), a Croatian Serb police officer employed with the police station in the eastern Croatian village of Tovarnik, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of genocide, in line with an arrest warrant issued by the Virovitica-Podravina police department. Bjelovar County State Prosecutor Pavao Pirsljin told reporters another 54 members of a special Serb paramilitary unit were suspected of launching an attack on the villages of Baline, Cetekovac and Cojluk on September 4 1991, killing 22 persons of Croat nationality and causing huge material damage. Asked by Hina if responsible persons in the Vukovar-Srijem police department had known about the war past of their fellow police officer, the head of the county crime police department, Tomislav Iljic, said the department had been informed about his war past only recently, after which the Virovitica-Podravina County police issued an arrest warrant. According to Iljic, Dusan U. worked as a police officer at the Tovarnik police station at the time of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube River region and was, like other police officers working there at the time, taken over by the Croatian Interior Ministry. (hina) rml