ABC News Online

This Bulletin: Thu, Apr 19 2001 7:01 AM AEST

http://www.abc.net..au/news/2001/04/item20010419061936_1.htm

Bosnian Serb commander pleads innocent to genocide charges

Bosnian Serb commander Dragan Obrenovic, accused of the murder of thousands of Muslim civilians during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, pleaded not guilty today to genocide and other war crimes charges before an Australian judge.

United Nations' prosecutors say the 38-year-old former major, seized by NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) troops in Bosnia on Sunday, played a crucial role in the killings, considered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

In a brief initial appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today, Obrenovic gave his name and age and waived his right to have the indictment read in full.

Judge David Hunt simply listed the five counts of complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. To each, Obrenovic answered "your honour, not guilty".

Prosecutors say Obrenovic and his superior, General Radislav Krstic, whose trial in The Hague is nearing an end, carried out the brutal purge with zeal under the guidance of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic.

"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," the indictment says.

Bosnian Serb forces are alleged to have killed up to 8,000 Muslims, including some in battle, after their troops overran the UN declared "safe zone" in July 1995. The name Srebrenica has almost become synonymous with the vicious ethnic purges that characterised the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

The indictment details the mammoth task Bosnian Serb troops carried out rounding up thousands of Muslim men and boys, executing them and dumping their bodies in mass graves dug by heavy equipment brought in for the job. The machinery's lights illuminated the burial sites as the executions continued during the evenings.

Troops were later ordered to dig up the bodies from the initial mass graves and transfer them to other sites in a huge cover-up that took months to complete.

UN tribunal forensics teams began uncovering the graves in 1996 in eastern Bosnia's Drina Valley, where Srebrenica was located.

The biggest mass grave of Srebrenica victims was found 50 kilometres away, near Zvornik by the Yugoslav border. Obrenovic was acting commander of the Zvornik brigade for the crucial period when Srebrenica was taken.

His brigade also attacked a column of Muslims attempting to flee their Serb captors.

Krstic told judges during his trial that his fear of Mladic had paralysed him. Prosecutors say evidence points to a different picture of a willing and efficient killer.

Hunt down

In an alleged conversation intercepted and recorded by the Bosnian Army, Obrenovic and Krstic discuss their efforts to hunt down the survivors of the Srebrenica attack.

On the tape played in court, Obrenovic tells Krstic his forces have "barbed" some people with mines and guns.

"Kill each and every one...do not leave a single one alive," is the reply from a voice similar to that of Krstic.

The arrest of Obrenovic, currently a Lieutenant Colonel, was the first by SFOR troops since June last year and the tribunal expects more to follow, with about 10 fugitives in the Bosnian Serb republic. The indictment had been kept secret until Sunday to give peacekeeping troops the advantage of surprise.

Judge Hunt said Obrenovic's trial should begin early next year when the court will have a pool of judges on standby and aims to hold six trials simultaneously.

Much of the evidence from the Krstic case is likely to reappear.