THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - A former commander of the Bosnian Army defence units in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, arrested in Tuzla last week and extradited to The Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY),
on Tuesday entered a plea of not guilty on all six counts on his indictment for war crimes.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - A former commander of the
Bosnian Army defence units in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, arrested in
Tuzla last week and extradited to The Hague-based U.N. war crimes
tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), on Tuesday entered a plea of
not guilty on all six counts on his indictment for war crimes. #L#
The indictment accuses Oric, 36, of violations of the law and
customs of war and the Geneva conventions, based on his command and
individual responsibility, the murder and cruel treatment of
prisoners, wanton destruction of villages and the plunder of public
and private property.
"Honourable court and gentlemen, I am not guilty," Oric replied
after each count was read.
He said he had nothing to say about his arrest or transfer to The
Hague.
SFOR troops arrested him last Thursday in Tuzla, where he had lived
since the fall of Srebrenica in 1995.
The arraignment was chaired by South Korean judge O-Gon Kwon.
The ICTY has indicted Oric, a commander of Srebrenica's Territorial
Defence and later of the Bosnian Army's 28th Brigade, for attacks on
Serb villages in the municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac and
Skelani in eastern Bosnia in 1992 and 1993 and for the torture and
murder of Serb prisoners in a Srebrenica police station.
Oric is the seventh Bosniak indicted for war crimes by the ICTY.
Srebrenica has become a synonym for war crimes committed by Serb
forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After they occupied the town in July
1995, they killed some 8,000 Bosniaks, which is believed to be the
gravest individual crime in Europe since World War Two.
(hina) lml