Two Serbs stand trial in Bosnia

Two Serbs stand trial in Bosnia

Todović was deputy warden of the prison, which was used as a camp, and Rašević supervised at least 37 guards, the indictment said.

Both men refused to enter pleas ahead of the trial, but Todović told the court his defense would try to prove he did not commit the crimes he was indicted for.

Rašević said, "I want to believe that this process will reveal the truth about what happened in and around the Foča prison."

They were transferred from the UN.war crimes tribunal in The Hague in October to stand trial at the Bosnian court set up last year to try lower- and mid-level cases.

The Hague Tribunal has so far transferred seven suspects to the Bosnian court as part of its strategy to focus on the remaining top Balkan suspects before it closes in 2010.

The Tribunal announced on Thursday, April 5, it was also referring the case of Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader Milan Lukić and his cousin Sredoje Lukić, accused of burning to death scores of Muslim women, children and elderly men in 1992, to the Bosnian Court.

Lukić and his cousin face multiple charges relating to the activities of their paramilitary unit known as the White Eagles or Avengers, which prosecutors say worked with local police and military units to exact a reign of terror over Muslims in the area around Višegrad in south-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.ž, the Hague Tribunal says in a statement.

The statement recalled details of the indictment, according to which the Lukić cousins are accused of murdering about 70 Muslim women, children and elderly men by barricading them in one room of a house in Višegrad, setting the house on fire and then firing automatic weapons at those who tried to escape through the windows.

In a separate incident, the two men are accused of murdering about 70 other Muslims in the nearby village of Bikavac by forcing the victims into a house, barricading all exits and then throwing in several explosive devices.

The cousins are also accused of beating Muslim men who had been detained in a camp at a military barracks in Višegrad.

Milan Lukic is charged separately with several other counts of murder in which he is alleged to have led groups of Muslim men to the bank of the Drina River near Višegrad and then killed them.