Srebrenica suspect denies charges

Obrenovic denies five counts of complicity in genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Bosnian Serb commander has denied playing a key role in the massacre of Muslims in the Srebrenica massacre.

Dragan Obrenovic, who was detained at the weekend, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before The Hague's war crimes tribunal on Wednesday.

Obrenovic faces five charges in connection with the massacre of more than 5,000 Muslim men and boys in what was then a United Nation's so-called safe haven.

He led the Zvornik Brigade at the time of the massacre in July 1995, widely regarded as the worst atrocity to have taken place in Europe since the end of World War II.

AUDIO Richard Goldstone, former War Crimes Tribunal Chief Justice: No anti-Serb bias in the tribunal 718 Kb/67 secs. AIFF or WAV sound

The former deputy commander of the brigade faces five counts of complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.

Part of the indictment says: "Dragan Obrenovic participated in a criminal plan and enterprise, the common purpose of which was to detain, capture, and summarily execute by firing squad and bury over 5,000 Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave."

He was arrested by NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) troops on Sunday near Zvornik in Bosnia's Serb republic.

Belgrade-based radio B-92 quoted Obrenovic's wife Bojana as saying her husband had been arrested in the garden outside her father's house.

"Two cars stopped at the gate, three men and a woman in civilian clothing got out of the cars and ushered him over.

"Without suspecting anything he approached them. The men pulled out guns and, threatening him, put him into the car," she said.

Many more trials planned

About 1,000 Bosnian Serbs protested peacefully in Zvornik about Obrenovic's arrest.

The Hague welcomed Obrenovic's arrest, which was the first in Bosnia of a war crimes suspect since last June.

It said it expected more arrests to follow, since there were still about 10 fugitives in the Bosnian Serb republic.

The two men considered most responsible for the Srebrenica massacre are Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic. They are at large and believed to be in the Bosnian Serb republic.

Meanwhile, the war crimes tribunal plans to increase the number of trials held simultaneously with a new pool of judges on which it can call.

The tribunal, which faces a backlog of outstanding cases, aims to hold five trials per day in its three courtrooms in the latter part of this year, rising to six for the first half of 2002, tribunal officials said Wednesday.

Obrenovic is among 38 suspects currently held at the detention center of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

A further three have been provisionally released pending their trials. Ten accused are in ongoing trials.

Under new rules, the United Nations has elected 27 judges whose sole responsibility will be to attend trials when called upon.

Other business, such as pre-trial hearings and the signing of indictments, will be handled by the core of permanent judges.

"The idea is maximum flexibility," Stephane Bourgon of the tribunal president's office said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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U.N. War Crimes Tribunal
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
NATO

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