The Hague War Crimes Tribunal has heard that three Bosnian Serbs tortured and killed hundreds of Muslims and Croats at a detention centre in 1992. On the first day of their trial, the 36-year-old alleged commander of Keraterm camp pleaded not guilty to genocide, complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Two others, who supervised guards at the camp, pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity and violating the laws or customs of war.
"Torture, beatings, starvation, murder and massacre were part of the 'game-plan' for Keraterm detainees," prosecutor Dirk Ryneveld told the court. "The three accused before you today were among the faces of their captors that made life a living hell during their time spent in Keraterm," said Ryneveld. Prosecutors claim that over 7,000 Bosnian Muslims, Croats and other non-Serbs were held at Keraterm and Omarska and Trnopolje camps in Prijedor, northwest Bosnia, in May-August 1992. Around 1,500 prisoners, most of them military-aged men, were held at Keraterm, a former ceramics factory, according to Ryneveld.
