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Bosnian Serb general denies war crimes

The general confirmed his identity and answered "not guilty" to the single count of persecution during the 10-minute hearing at a United Nations international war crimes tribunal.

Defence counsel Vladimir Petrovic told the court his client had waived the right to hear the indictment against him read in full.

Prosecutors allege that General Talic oversaw the murder, torture and expulsion of more than 100,000 non-Serbs from the Krajina region of north-western Bosnia.

Secret indictment

General Talic was secretly indicted in March by the UN tribunal's outgoing chief prosecutor Louise Arbour for his alleged role in the "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict.

General Talic was arrested by civilian police in Vienna in a surprise raid on 25 August while he was attending a seminar on Bosnian military co-operation, sponsored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Austrian Government.

He is the most senior official to be detained on behalf of UN prosecutors and the first to be arrested on a sealed indictment outside Bosnia.

He was immediately flown to the Netherlands, where the court is sitting, and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

General Talic could face life imprisonment if he is convicted by the panel of three judges.

The prosecution would like to try General Talic with former Bosnian Serb Deputy Prime Minister Radoslav Brdjanin, who is already in custody and was named on the same indictment.

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