Two Suspects Enter Not Guilty Pleas For Srebrenica

Two Bosnian Serb wartime commanders entered not guilty pleas on Friday before the Bosnian war crimes court to charges of taking part in genocide against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995.

The court indicted Momir Pelemis, 59, and Slavko Peric, 41, for their role in the detention and killing of 1,700 Bosnian Muslim men from the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, after it fell to Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic.

The massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the enclave, which was under the protection of United Nations peacekeepers, is seen as Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

"I am not guilty for any count of the indictment," said Pelemis, who was arrested in November while working as a municipal inspector in the eastern town of Zvornik.

Peric also entered a not guilty plea.

Most of the Srebrenica Muslims were killed while trying to escape through the woods, either shot down immediately or seized and brought to warehouses or schools. They were then taken to execution sites, killed and buried in mass graves.

The two men were accused of taking part in mass executions in the village of Pilica, where one of the largest mass graves was found, and at the military cooperative at Branjevo.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has sentenced seven Bosnian Serbs for the Srebrenica massacre. Nine more are on trial, and Mladic, seen as the mastermind of the massacre, is on the run 13 years after he was indicted.

In Bosnia, 26 Bosnian Serbs have been put on trial over Srebrenica. Eleven have been jailed, seven acquitted and eight are still being tried.

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday declaring July 11 a day of commemoration for victims of the Srebrenica massacre.