TRIAL OF FORMER BOSNIAN SERB LEADER KRAJISNIK STARTS NEXT TUESDAY

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Jan 30(Hina) - The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik, a war-time Bosnian Serb leader, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first half of the 1990s, will commence next Tuesday (3 February), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reported on Friday.#L# The trial of the former chairman of the Bosnian Serb assembly will be held before a trial chamber presided by Judge Alphonse Orie. The indictment charges Momcilo Krajisnik (59) on the basis of his individual and command responsibility with two counts of genocide and complicity to commit genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity including persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, extermination, murder, deportation and inhumane acts as well as with one count of violations of the laws or customs of war. The amended consolidated indictment, issued in March 2002, alleges that Krajisnik, Biljana Plavsic, Slobodan Milosevic, Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic "participated in a Joint Criminal Enterprise, in which they planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation or execution of the partial destruction of the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croatian national, ethnical racial or religious groups, in the territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objective of the Joint Criminal Enterprise was primarily achieved through a manifest pattern of persecutions as alleged in the Indictment." Krajisnik was arrested by the NATO-led international peace keepers (SFOR) on 3 April 2000 in his house in Pale (outside Sarajevo) and after his apprehension he was transferred to The Hague. At his initial appearance before the tribunal, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges. (Hina) ms sb