MH17 Crash Suspect Linked to Massacre of 3,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1992



A retired Russian military officer turned separatist leader in eastern Ukraine, who is suspected of downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17, was allegedly involved in the 1992 Serbian ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad.

A photo showing young Igor Girkin, known by his pseudonym Igor Strelkov, in Visegrad with another Russian mercenary and Boban Indic, a member of the Serb brigade that laid siege to the town, implicates the veteran of both the Soviet and Russian armies in the pogrom of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) civilians.

At least 3,000 Muslims were massacred in the eastern Bosnian town. Muslim men were rounded up and murdered. Hundreds of women were detained and mass-raped at the spa, the infamous Vilina Vlas. Women, children and elderly people were locked in houses and burnt to death.

Igor Strelkov has been called "one of the most powerful separatist figures in eastern Ukraine." He's a veteran of both the Soviet and Russian armies and has been described as a covert agent of Russia's GRU military intelligence. He declared himself the Minister of Defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).