NETHERLANDS/ BOSNIA: FORMER BOSNIAN SERB CAMP COMMANDER DRAGAN NIKOLIC PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN UN TRIBUNAL

Record ID: 860920

  • Title: NETHERLANDS/ BOSNIA: FORMER BOSNIAN SERB CAMP COMMANDER DRAGAN NIKOLIC PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN UN TRIBUNAL
  • Date: 28th April 2000
  • Summary: VLASENICA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (FILE - JANUARY 1996)(REUTERS) VARIOUS ALLEGED MASS GRAVE SITE NEAR SUSICA (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS/SARAJEVO AND VLASENICA, BOSNIA
  • City:
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5MGQ0CAZ0JSOWIH4LB6V2KZXV
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Former Bosnian Serb camp commander Dragan Nikolic, the first suspect ever to be indicted by the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has pleaded not guilty to 80 counts of war crimes.
    Nikolic, who spent his 43rd birthday this week in detention near the Hague-based court, was making his first appearance at the tribunal after being seized by NATO-led peacekeepers last Friday (April 21).
    The indictment against Nikolic, issued in 1994, is a grim litany of killings, rapes and beatings allegedly inflicted by him and his subordinates at the Susica camp in northeast Bosnia, where as many as 8,000 Moslems were held.
    Witnesses testified at 1995 hearings how the former aluminium factory foreman had introduced himself to prisoners as "God" and told them he held their lives in his hands.
    The charges of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Convention and violations of the laws or customs of war represent the highest number of counts contained in any public indictment issued by the court so far.
    Dressed in a sea green suit and red toned tie, a gaunt, stony-faced Nikolic replied "Not guilty" when Judge David Hunt asked him how he pleaded to the counts in their entirety during Friday's (April 28) hearing.
    It was the first time a suspect had entered a plea to a complete set of charges rather than answering the counts one by one, tribunal officials said.
    The indictment says detainees at the camp were beaten on a daily basis and many of the women were sexually assaulted by guards and other men who were allowed to enter the camp.
    The Stabilisation Force in Bosnia (SFOR) says its peacekeepers detained Nikolic in northern Bosnia last Friday.
    But lawyer Borisa Ilic, who represented Nikolic on Friday, has been quoted as saying he was detained in the Serbian town of Smederevo and then taken to Bosnia.
    Nikolic gave a Smederevo address when asked at Friday's court appearance where he lived.
    Nikolic is among a score of Bosnians who have been detained so far for alleged crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.The two leading figures on the indicted list, wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander General Ratko Mladic, are still at large.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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