A former security official under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic pleaded innocent Monday to allegations of mass murders in Bosnia and Croatia during the wars of the 1990s.

Appearing for the first time at the U.N. tribunal, Franko Simatovic entered separate pleas to five counts of war crimes against non-Serbs during the 1991-1995 wars in Bosnia and Croatia.

Simatovic, the deputy head of state security under Milosevic, is accused of setting up the dreaded paramilitary units that carried out the murders.

Simatovic and his immediate former boss, the state security chief Jovica Stanisic, were arrested in Belgrade in an investigation of the March 12 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

The court later disclosed war crimes indictments against both men, and Simatovic was transferred on Friday to the U.N. detention unit in the Netherlands, where Milosevic also is held. Stanisic was deemed too ill to travel.

The U.N. indictment says that they participated in a "joint criminal enterprise" aiming to purge Muslims and Croats from large areas of Bosnia and Croatia and annex them to Serbia.

Under Milosevic, the security service was a feared institution, known for torturing prisoners and covert operations in Bosnia and Croatia.

Earlier in the same courtroom, the Milosevic trial moved into the 29th week of the prosecution case with the testimony of a Muslim who said he was a survivor of a massacre in eastern Bosnia.

The witness, whose identity was protected from publication, told the tribunal that Serb forces rounded up roughly 700 Muslims from his area, and executed about 180 of them over three days in June 1992.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was established by the U.N. Security Council in 1993 to prosecute individuals responsible for atrocities during the decade-long breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Close

Today's Top News		Top China News
+Mainland, HK settle landmark trade pact ( 2003-06-30) +Ministry: Encephalitis B epidemic in Guangdong under control ( 2003-06-30) +Forbes business summit to showcase Shanghai and China ( 2003-06-30) +Beijing Games moved back two weeks ( 2003-06-30) +Identity card law to boost rights ( 2003-06-30)		+Pact to push HK economy forward ( 2003-06-30) +Police crackdown on rogue guards in Shenzhen ( 2003-06-30) +ID card law to protect citizenship ( 2003-06-30) +Superstar opens super bridge ( 2003-06-30) +Man bitten by cayman in Wuhan ( 2003-06-30)