Krajisnik Pleads Not Guilty
Momcilo Krajisnik, the most senior Bosnian war crimes suspect in custody, pleaded innocent Friday to charges of genocide and other mass atrocities in his first public appearance before the U.N. tribunal.
Krajisnik, the top aide to former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, has been indicted on charges he "planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted" the wholesale slaughter of thousands of non-Serb civilians during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Krajisnik stood as Judge Richard May of Britain read the charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including counts of extermination, murder, willful killing, and inhumane acts.
Krajisnik, the biggest catch yet by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, listened impassively to the nine counts against him. He coolly responded "not guilty" to each, shaking his head slightly as he spoke.
"No, no," Krajisnik said with added emphasis when May pronounced the genocide counts. "Not guilty."
The judge rejected a request by Krajisnik "to say a few words in my defense." May noted that the initial appearance is a formal proceeding only to allow the defendant to respond to the charges.
If convicted on any count, the 55-year-old former wartime speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament faces life in prison.
Prosecutors consider Krajisnik and Karadzic masterminds of the ethnic cleansing campaigns that sent Muslims and Croats fleeing en masse from wide swaths of northern and eastern Bosnia that now form part of the Bosnian Serb Republic.
If Karadzic, also wanted by the tribunal, is ever caught, his indictment would read much like Krajisnik's.
The indictment catalogs a list of executions, forced exodus, torture and beatings allegedly committed at the behest of the two leaders. They headed the extreme nationalist Serb Democratic Party, or SDS, which seized control of local administrations in the early stages of the war to implement the ethnic purges.
"As an active member of the Bosnian Serb leadership during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina," the indictment says, Krajisnik "exercised both formal and/or de facto power and control over the Bosnian Serb forces and all SDS and government authorities who participated in the crimes."
Krajisnik was the 19th war crimes suspect arrested by NATO and one of the first in the sector of Bosnia patrolled by French troops, who have been criticized for dragging their feet on tribunal arrest warrants.
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal was established seven years ago by the U.N. Security Council to prosecute those responsible for atrocities in the Balkans following the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991. It has handed down sentences of up to 45 years to 14 Serb, Muslim and Croat defendants.
Krajisnik is the most senior figure among the nearly 40 suspects in the tribunal's custody, which include three Bosnan Serb generals blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the war. Still at large are the wartime Bosnian Serb military chief, Ratko Mladic, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and dozens of other predominantly Serb suspects.