THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 11 (Hina) - A war-time commander of the Muslim-led Bosnian defence units in the area of Srebrenica, Naser Oric, indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was transferred to the tribunal's detention
centre in Scheveningen on Friday, the tribunal reported.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 11 (Hina) - A war-time commander of the
Muslim-led Bosnian defence units in the area of Srebrenica, Naser
Oric, indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was
transferred to the tribunal's detention centre in Scheveningen on
Friday, the tribunal reported. #L#
Oric (aged 36) was nabbed by international peace-keepers in Bosnia
in front of his flat in Tuzla on Thursday evening. He was then
transferred to The Hague.
The indictment, which was sealed until his apprehension, was issued
by Carla del Ponte, the Chief Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on 13 March, and
confirmed by Judge Richard May on 28 March this year.
The indictee is charged with six counts of war crimes, including
murder and cruel treatment of Bosnian Serbs detained at a police
station in the enclave of Srebrenica while it was under Muslim
control. Oric is indicted on the basis of personal and command
responsibility for violations of the law and customs of war and the
Geneva conventions.
Units under his command conducted many operations against Bosnian
Serb troops from May 1992 to February 1993 in eastern Bosnia,
according to the indictment released on Friday.
Those operations saw cases of wanton destruction and burning of
houses and business facilities, plunder of cattle, furniture and
other property in 15 predominantly Serb villages in the wider area
of Srebrenica, Bratunac and Skelani. As a result, thousands of
local villagers fled the region.
The indictment alleges that Oric was responsible for the abuse of
Serb civilians detained in police stations in Srebrenica, and that
seven of those victims died.
Oric was born in the village of Potocari in 1967. In the late 1980's
he was employed in the Serbian Interior Ministry, and from time to
time worked as a body guard of the former Serbian and Yugoslav
president, Slobodan Milosevic.
In 1990 and 1991 he was deployed in Kosovo as a member of special
police units and in August 1991 returned to Bosnia, i.e. Ilidza near
Sarajevo. At the start of the war in Bosnia, he was the commander of
the police station in Potocari.
Oric was then appointed commander of the territorial defence of the
Srebrenica area, which was later transformed into the 28th Brigade
of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1994 he was decorated for
courage and promoted to the rank of brigadier.
Shortly before the offensive of the Serb units on Srebrenica, at the
time a UN safe haven, Oric was ordered by his superiors in Sarajevo
to leave Srebrenica and was transferred to Tuzla.
In July 1995 the Serb forces, commanded by Ratko Mladic, who is
still in hiding, overran Srebrenica and massacred 8,000 local
Muslim men and boys. The Srebrenica tragedy is considered the
gravest case of war crimes since the Second World War.
Naser Oric is regarded by many Bosniaks (Muslims) as a war hero for
his role in the defence of the Srebrenica enclave in the early
1990s.
His being arrested before notorious war-time leaders Ratko Mladic
and Radovan Karadzic, who are the most responsible for atrocities
committed by Bosnian Serbs, will probably cause dissatisfaction in
Bosnia.
Oric is the seventh Bosnian Muslim to have been indicted by the
ICTY.
(hina) ms sb