Скачать или смотреть THE NETHERLANDS: MILAN KOVACEVIC APPEARS BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

(30 Jul 1997) English/Nat

A Bosnian Serb doctor on Wednesday became the first person accused of committing genocide in the Bosnian civil war to appear before the U-N War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Milan Kovacevic denies the charges and his lawyer says his arrest by NATO - led troops was illegal.

The U-N War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague was where the alleged Bosnian Serb criminal Milan Kovacevic was brought to face international justice on Wednesday.

56 year-old Kovacevic is the first suspect indicted for genocide to appear at the court so far.

Prosecutors say Kovacevic helped orchestrate a genocidal purge of Muslims and Croats in the Prijedor region of northwest Bosnia in 1992.

They say he set up three brutal prison camps to house non-Serbs driven out of their homes.

According to Kovacevic's indictment, prisoners were held in inhuman conditions, raped, tortured and killed.

Kovacevic's lawyer refused to accept the legality of his client's arrest by British S-A-S troops, who also killed another alleged Bosnian Serb war criminal in a snatch operation.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I challenge also this principle of sealed indictments also the way of his arrestation just for example maybe he would be able to surrender himself if he knew he was indicted I mean just as an example. But he didn't in this situation get this opportunity."
SUPER CAPTION: Igor Pantelic, Kovacevic's lawyer

If convicted, Kovacevic faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The U-N court has publicly indicted 77 suspects, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, but has just 10 in custody.

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