Muslim war crimes suspect detained in Bosnia, sent to UN court

SARAJEVO (AFP) Apr 11, 2003
NATO-led peacekeepers said Friday thay have arrested Naser Oric, the wartime Muslim commander of the Srebrenica enclave, who has been indicted by a UN tribunal for war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs.

At the court's headquarters in The Hague, tribunal officials said that Oric was already on his way there, and was due to arrive in the course of the morning.

Oric is charged with "violations of the laws or customs of war, to include murder, cruel treatement, wanton destruction and plunder" committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) said in a statement.

Oric, whose indictment had been kept secret by the court -- officially known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia-- is the first Muslim indicted for war crimes in Srebrenica, where the worst single atrocity of the Bosnian war took place in 1995.

SPACE.WIRE