Serb commander pleads innocent over Srebrenica

A Bosnian Serb commander has pleaded innocent to charges of unleashing the Srebrenica massacre.

Colonel Dragan Obrenovic has pleaded innocent to charges of complicity in genocide and war crimes.

Thousands of Muslims died at Srebrenica in the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

Obrenovic is also accused of trying to cover up the atrocity by exhuming the bodies of victims and reburying them in mass graves.

Obrenovic, 38, is making his first appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

He was arrested in Zvornik, Bosnia, on Sunday by NATO-led peacekeeping forces.

He could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty of one of five counts of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity by the extermination, murder and persecution of Muslims.

"Your honour, I am not guilty," Obrenovic told the presiding Australian judge, David Hunt.

Dressed in a black suit, crisp white shirt and tie, Obrenovic stood nervously with his hands clasped before him as he entered a separate plea to each of the five charges.

At least 7,500 Muslim men and boys were reported dead or missing in the 1995 atrocity. According to the indictment, Obrenovic was the acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade that played a major role in the assault.