Only former JNA General Pavle Strugar and his subordinate, commander Miodrag Jokic, have been convicted, by the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, of the crimes committed in the attack on Dubrovnik, although it is known that, during the siege of the Dubrovnik area, numerous war crimes against civilians were committed, including murder, abuse, and destruction and looting of property, the statement said.
In 2011, the Croatian State Prosecutor's Office said that in 2009 it accused eight senior JNA officers of war crimes against civilians and the destruction of cultural and historical monuments, proposing detention and the issue of warrants, the statement said, adding that new information regarding this case was unavailable.
The statement went on to say that in December 2014 European Union expert Maurizio Salustro, who examined and criticised the conduct of the Montenegrin State Prosecutor's Office in war crimes investigations, proposed to the state prosecutors to take a proactive approach, notably in investigations of war crimes committed in the Dubrovnik area given that a large number of Montenegrin citizens were killed in action there.
The Montenegrin Special State Prosecutor's Office said today that its representatives visited the Hague tribunal last month, searching the tribunal's database for information and evidence relating to the investigations it was conducting as well as information and evidence which would indicate that Montenegrin citizens had committed war crimes during armed conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, including in the Dubrovnik area.
Bearing in mind that not one investigation was launched over the past year into crimes committed during the siege of Dubrovnik, we again urge the Montenegrin Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Croatian State Prosecutor's Office to invest a lot more effort to examine the archived evidence, collect additional evidence and prosecute the war crimes that were undoubtedly committed in the Dubrovnik area, the joint statement said.