Bosnia's state prosecutor asked the justice ministry on Tuesday to seek the extradition of a former mayor of a southern Bosnian town arrested in Serbia for the 1991 shelling of Croatia's medieval town of Dubrovnik.

Bozidar Vucurevic is a Bosnian national investigated for the war crimes committed in Trebinje, a town near Dubrovnik, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"The prosecutor's office believes this case should be prosecuted before a local judiciary," it said, adding that Bosnia's justice and foreign ministry should undertake further activities related to the request.

Vucurevic was arrested last week at Serbia's Karakaj border crossing with Bosnia on an 2008 arrest warrant from Croatia.

During the opening stages of the Yugoslav wars in 1991, Vucurevic was the mayor and a warlord in the Serb-dominated Trebinje, which served as rear area for the Yugoslav Army during the siege on Dubrovnik, a UNESCO world heritage site.

He is also alleged to have taken part in the persecution of thousands of Muslims and Croats from Trebinje and their forced drafting in to the Yugoslav army to serve on the Dubrovnik front, but he has not been indicted on those charges.

On October 1, 1991 the Yugoslav military started a seven month-long siege and shelling of Dubrovnik which damaged many historical sites and killed many.

Former Yugoslav Army General Pavle Strugar, who coordinated the Dubrovnik offensive, was jailed for eight years by the U.N. war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for his role in the attacks.

(REUTERS)