The Bosnian Serb commander of prison camp in eastern Bosnia will on Monday go on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes, at the international tribunal in The Hague, prosecutors announced.
Milorad Krnojelac, 60, is accused of having tortured and killed inmates at the prison in Foca, between 1992 and 1993, according to the prosecution's charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Several hundred civilians, mostly Muslim, were detained there without having been charged with any crimes, it adds.
The Tribunal prosecution accuses Krnojelac of "numerous killings of Muslim and other non-Serb male civilian detainees," as well as repeated torture and beatings of the inmates.
The inmates were also kept in inhumane and subject to a forced labor regime, the indictment continues.
Krnojelac is also accused of having taken part in the deportation or expulsion of the majority of Muslims and other non-Serbs from Foca, a town of 40,000 residents, which was predominantly Muslim before the war began.
The Tribunal is charging Krnojelac with seven counts of crimes against humanity, six violations of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during war and five counts of war crimes.
Krnojelac pleaded not guilty at a hearing in June 1998, soon after his arrest in Foca by UN members of the SFOR United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia -- THE HAGUE (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
