Four Bosnian Serbs start trial at war crimes court
Source: Reuters
SARAJEVO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Bosnia's war crimes court on Wednesday opened a trial against four Bosnian Serbs charged with crimes against humanity over killings, beating and rapes at two detention camps for Muslims and Croats early in the 1992-95 war. Prosecutor David Schwendiman said Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Knezevic and Dragan Fustar were charged for atrocities committed at the Omarska and Keraterm detention camps in western Bosnia. "The four took part in a widespread and systematic attack in the area around the town of Prijedor where 7,000 non-Serb civilians were detained, tortured and many of them killed on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or political affiliation," Schwendiman said. All four men, who were transferred in May from the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, denied the charges. Mejakic was the guard commander and Gruban was a guard shift commander at Omarska where 3,000 Muslims and Croats were kept in inhumane conditions and subjected to physical, psychological and sexual maltreatment, according to the charges. Fustar was guard shift commander at Keraterm where 1,500 non-Serbs were detained and where hundreds of detainees were believed to have been killed. Knezevic had no official position in either of the two camps but was charged with killings and beatings in both places. The international tribunal in The Hague has tried 10 Bosnian Serbs for crimes committed in the Prijedor area and gave them jail terms ranging from five to 40 years. One indicted man remains at large. Almost 2,300 Muslim, Croat and other non-Serb victims from the Prijedor area have been exhumed from 53 mass graves and several hundred individual graves so far, while 1,100 are still unaccounted for. Wednesday's trial was the third case transferred to Bosnia's new war crimes court from the U.N. tribunal as part of its strategy to send low- and mid-level cases to the countries in the region as it prepares to shut down its operations by 2010.
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