Bosnian Serb commander faces war crime charges

A former Bosnian Serb army commander pleaded not guilty today at a UN tribunal to war crimes charges stemming from the two-year siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.

Dragomir Milosevic – who is not related to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic – surrendered in Serbia on Friday and was transferred to the UN court in the Netherlands.

No date has been set for his trial.

Dragomir Milosevic was indicted in 1998 on seven charges, including murdering and terrorising civilians.

His indictment alleged that as chief of staff and later commander of Romanija Corps, a unit of the Bosnian Serb army, he “conducted a co-ordinated and protracted campaign of sniper attacks upon the civilian population of Sarajevo” in 1994 and 1995.

Dragomir Milosevic’s predecessor as corps commander, General Stanislav Galic, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years by the court in 2003.

Both men were subordinates of the court’s most wanted fugitives, the top Bosnian Serb military leader General Ratko Mladic and top political leader Radovan Karadzic.

The Hague tribunal was set up in 1993 by the UN Security Council to try those suspected of war crimes in the Balkans during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Slobodan Milosevic’s trial on more than 60 charges including alleged genocide, is ongoing at the court.