Bosnian Serb leader denies genocide

Plavsic: Highest-ranking Bosnian Serb to face charges

The former president of the Bosnian Serb Republic has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and war crimes at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Charges denied

Genocide

Extermination

Crimes against humanity

Murder

Violation of laws of war

Persecution on political, racial and religious grounds

Wilful killing

Deportation

Inhumane acts

Biljana Plavsic, 70, was formally indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday, after she turned herself in.

She pleaded innocent to a total of nine charges, including genocide, crimes against humanity, murder, violation of the laws of war, deportation and inhumane acts.

"I have received the indictment yesterday. I understood it fully and I plead not guilty to all counts on the indictment," the silver-haired biologist told the court.

The 70-year-old Plavsic then answered "not guilty" to each count as Judge Richard May read them out.

First woman

During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Mrs Plavsic was a key aide to the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the tribunal's most wanted Bosnian suspect.

She is the highest ranking Bosnian Serb official - and the first woman - to face charges at the tribunal.

Mrs Plavsic was a key ally of Radovan Karadzic

Her appearance is a major success for the court - a few years ago it was struggling to bring any of the alleged Yugoslav war criminals to justice.

Prosecutors now hope the new Yugoslav leadership will deliver the most senior indicted war criminals to international justice.

Earlier, the Belgrade authorities announced plans to set up a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac said he hoped the commission would bring together representatives from Bosnia, Croatia and federal Yugoslavia.

'Innocent'

The tribunal's indictment says Mrs Plavsic, together with other members of the Serbian Democratic Party, served on the war presidency of the Bosnian Serb republic and from July 1991 to December 1992 planned or ordered the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

This is the only place where she can prove that she is not guilty, which she deeply believes

Plavsic lawyer Kstran Simic

It details a huge catalogue of events in which non-Serbs were executed, tortured and detained in inhuman conditions as the brutal purge gathered pace.

Mrs Plavsic surrendered to the court on Wednesday morning, after being told there was a sealed indictment against her.

Her defence lawyer said she had decided to hand herself in "because she believes she is innocent".

Krstan Simic told SRNA news agency that Mrs Plavsic believed the tribunal was the only place where she could defend herself.

Strong nationalist

During the Bosnian war, Serb forces kept the capital, Sarajevo, under siege and killed and expelled tens of thousands of Muslims and Croats.

In 1992, a widely-published photograph showed Mrs Plavsic stepping over the body of a dead Muslim civilian to kiss the late Serb warlord Zeljko Raznjatovic, known as Arkan.

She was elected president of the Bosnian Serbs in 1996, but was defeated at the polls two years later.

In 1997, she attracted Western support after publicly criticising Bosnian Serb hardliners, alleging widespread corruption.

However, she remained a strong nationalist, and spoke out against the arrests of suspected war criminals by Nato-led troops in Bosnia.

Since it was established in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced 14 Bosnian Serb, Croat and Muslim suspects to up to 45 years in prison.