War crimes suspect surrenders to court

Images from Omarska shocked the world during the war

A Bosnian Serb accused of committing atrocities at two detention camps in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1992 has surrendered to the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

[Dusko Knezevic was one of the so-called camp visitors who came to kill, beat or abuse prisoners

Jim Landale
tribunal spokesman

A tribunal spokesman said Dusko Knezevic had given himself up to authorities in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka on Saturday and taken to the UN detention unit in The Hague.

The 34-year-old waiter is named in two indictments and faces 21 counts of crimes against humanity and 25 of war crimes - among them actions at the infamous detention camps of Omarska and Keraterm.

Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale said that although Mr Knezevic was not an official at the camps, he was one of "the so-called camp visitors who came to kill, beat or abuse prisoners".

Infamous camps

Mr Knezevic is expected to appear before the court to enter a plea next week.

The charges against him are punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Mrksic: One of those who turned himself in after calls from Belgrade

Omarska and Keraterm were among the most notorious of 39 detention camps set up at the beginning of the war in Bosnia - part of what prosecutors say was a Serbian plan to ethnically cleanse the area of non-Serbs.

About 6,000 Muslims and Croats were held in Omarska, a former mining complex 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Bosnian town of Prijedor.

Images of half-starved, semi-naked, prisoners being held there shocked the world and led to international calls for intervention.

According to the UN indictment, some 7,000 non-Serbs were also held in the nearby camp of Keraterm, where some were starved, beaten, sexually assaulted and killed.

Still at large

In recent weeks, five other Serb suspects turned themselves in after Belgrade urged all Serb war crimes suspects to surrender rather than face arrest and extradition.

The five, who are now in custody of the tribunal are:

• Former Yugoslav army chief General Dragoljub Ojdanic
• Former deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic
• Former Bosnian Serb prison camp warden Momcilo Gruban
• Former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic
• Former Yugoslav army officer General Mile Mrksic

  Another suspect, former Yugoslav army officer Vladimir Kovacevic - who is wanted for the army shelling of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik - has declared he also intends to surrender voluntarily next week.

  Seventeen other Serbs indicted by the UN court for alleged war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s remain at large.

  Among them two of the most wanted suspects: Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.