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Serb Camp Guard Pleads Innocent to War Crimes
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) — A Bosnian Serb prison camp guard pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges of war crimes allegedly committed at the Keraterm prison camp in Prijedor in northwest Bosnia. Goran Lajic, wearing a striped T-shirt and jeans, told the U.N. criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia that he was a victim of mistaken identity and that he did not even know where the Keraterm camp was.
"I plead not guilty to all charges. I have never set eyes on the Keraterm camp. I have never been there and I do not even know where that camp is. "I am not the Goran Lajic mentioned in the indictment. I am not that man. There may be very many Goran Lajic's in Bosnia Herzegovina," Lajic told trial chamber judge Claude Jorda.
Lajic, 28, was arrested in Germany on March 18 after a tip-off from Interpol and transferred to The Hague last Monday. He is one of 13 Serbs charged with atrocities against Muslims and Croats at Keraterm, a former ceramics factory.
The tribunal alleges that in the summer of 1992 Serb forces rounded up more than 3,000 Muslims and Croats from the Prijedor district and imprisoned them at Keraterm. "Detainees were killed, sexually assaulted, tortured, beaten and otherwise subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment," it said in its July 1995 indictment. "Hundreds were killed."
"Severe beatings were commonplace. One count charges that some of the accused were involved in the firing of machine guns and heavy calibre guns into a room filled with at least 140 detainees who all died." Lajic is personally charged with killing five prisoners.
The tribunal, set up by the U.N. Security Council three years ago, is the first international body for prosecuting war crimes since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials in the 1950s. It has indicted 57 suspects for war crimes, but holds only five in its custody.
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Berserkistan, May 15 · Girlfriend Listens as Muslim Leader is Beaten
Berserkistan, May 10 · First Muslim Before Tribunal Pleads Not Guilty
Berserkistan, May 9 · Historian Takes Stand for Second Day In Trial of Dusan Tadic
Berserkistan, May 8 · Historian Sets Context for Atrocities in Day 2 of Tadic Trial
Berserkistan, May 8 · Muslims in Sarajevo React to Tribunal Trial
Berserkistan, May 7 · Defense: Tadic Had No Role in Murder, Torture
Berserkistan, May 7 · On Trial's Eve, Tadic Claims Innocence
Key Facts about the War Crimes Tribunal
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia The United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
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