BOSNIAN SERB REFUSES CHARGES OF RUNNING HOUSE WHERE WOMEN WERE RAPED

July 12, 2002 – (AP article in The Canadian Press) A Bosnian Serb declined to enter a plea Friday before the UN war crimes court on charges that he ran a house where women and girls were enslaved and raped during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Radovan Stankovic, 33, said the court had no jurisdiction in the case, which stemmed from alleged atrocities near the eastern Bosnian town of Foca.

"I do not wish to plead on any of these charges and counts," Stankovic said. "I am here because I am a Serb and I've defended my people."
The court entered an innocent plea on his behalf, and Stankovic later said he would appoint a lawyer.

Prosecutors charge that Stankovic, a former member of a Serb paramilitary unit, is guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. The crimes against Bosnian Muslim women and girls allegedly occurred after Serb forces overran Foca in 1992.

If convicted, Stankovic could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Stankovic was arrested Tuesday by NATO-led forces in the Serb-controlled part Bosnia, the second suspect captured this week.

On Sunday, peacekeepers detained Miroslav Deronjic, another Bosnian Serb who is accused in the deaths of 65 Muslims and the destruction of their eastern Bosnian village, Glogova.

He pleaded innocent Monday to war crimes charges before the UN tribunal.