Hague Tribunal denies Naser Oric murders

BBC Monitoring International Reports
April 11, 2003

HEADLINE: NO EVIDENCE OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN OPERATIONS BY BOSNIAN COMMANDER – HAGUE

The Hague, 11 April: Florence Hartmann, the spokeswoman of the Hague tribunal’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – ICTY prosecution, has told Beta today that the investigators conducting an investigation into Naser Oric, the former commander of the Muslim forces Bosnia-Hercegovina Army in the Srebrenica area, found no evidence that there were civilian casualties in the attacks on Serb villages in his theatre of operations.

Hartmann said that, therefore, Oric was for the time being only indicted for the wanton destruction of some 15 villages around Srebrenica.

Among these villages was the village of Kravice, a place in which Oric’s forces, according to the Serb media at the time, killed dozens of civilians, mostly women and children, during Christmas 1993.

The indictment made public today charges Oric with the murder and torture of prisoners in Srebrenica itself, which is defined as a violation of the laws or customs of war. He, however, is not charged with the murder of civilians, that is, with crimes against humanity.

Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1246 gmt 11 Apr 03