Four Bosnian Serbs enter war crimes trial

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia war crimes court opened on Wednesday a trial against four Bosnian Serbs charged with crimes against humanity over killings, beating and rapes at two detention camps for Muslim and Croats early in the 1992-95.

Prosecutor David Schwendiman said Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Knezevic and Dragan Fustar were charged for atrocities committed at the notorious 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," he said.

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 subjugated to grave 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 too.

Knezevic had no official position in either of the two camps but was charged with killings and beatings at both facilities.

All four men, who had been transferred in May from the United Nations international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Hague court has tried 10 Bosnian Serbs for the crimes in the Prijedor area and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from five to 40 years. One indictee remains at large.

Almost 2,300 Muslim, Croat and other non-Serb victims from the Prijedor area have been exhumed from 53 mass and several hundred individual graves so far, while 1,100 are still unaccounted for.

The case of Mejakic and others is the third transferred to Bosnia's new war crimes court from the Hauge-based 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 by 2010.

Nine Bosnian have been sentenced by Bosnia's state court so far while another about two dozen are being tried or are awaiting trial.

Interesting in that the international court is now sending war criminals back to national courts for trial.

Almost 2,300 Muslim, Croat (Catholic) and other non-Serb victims from the Prijedor area have been exhumed from 53 mass and several hundred individual graves so far, while 1,100 are still unaccounted for.

The Serbian ethnic cleansing of the Croatian Catholics is not given much play here by our Serb war crime apologists. It sort of puts the lie to their post 9-11 reinvention of the Balkan Wars as some kind of defense of Christianity.

Well, James, those charges have been reviewed by the Bush Administration Justice Department and vetted by our interagency process; i.e. run through Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, etc. The end result is that the USA continued to support the trial of Milosevic with funding for the court, "seconded" personnel to work on the trial, and the use of our military to continue to round up Slobo's war crime perp-buddies for their trials at the same court.

Here's the link to Milosevic's indictment. Perhaps you can identify which one of the counts against him were "trumped" up. Go to the ICTY base page and transcripts of his trial are posted, if you'd like to support your position.

And here's what the leadership of the Serbian Orthodox Church says about Milosevic (of course not legally binding, but significant in a much more long-lasting way!):

"We are both aware, as God knows, how much evil has been done [in Kosovo] in the course of the last year and especially in the last three months. The great part of the guilt lies with Milosevic."

-Bishop Artemije, senior representative of Serbian Orthodox Church, speaking for himself and Patriarch Pavle, head of the church, NYT, June 29.

Bosnia war crimes court opened on Wednesday a trial against four Bosnian Serbs charged with crimes against humanity over killings, beating and rapes at two detention camps for Muslim and Croats early in the 1992-95.

Mark: Why don't you rephrase the title and say that four Waffen-SS soldiers were indicted? This is what you really want...isn't it?

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