UN tribunal grants provisional release to Bosnian Serb genocide defendant

A Bosnian Serb charged with the genocide of hundreds of Croats and Muslims and the forcible relocation of thousands more in 1992 was granted his provisional release today by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The trial chamber hearing the case of Momir Talic deemed it "appropriate" to order his provisional release given his medical condition. That decision followed a confidential motion for the order filed by the defence earlier this month.

Mr. Talic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war, and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. According to the indictment, as commander of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) 5th Corps/1st Krajina Corps, all plans for military engagement and attack had to be approved by him before any forces were committed to battle or other operations.

The indictment alleges that in 1991 the leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party, through Crisis Staffs, began preparations to take power in Bosnian cities where the Serbs did not have clear control, and to implement a general plan of ethnically cleansing the areas considered to be "Serbian." By the end of 1992, hundreds of Bosnian Muslims and Croats were dead and thousands had been forced from those areas.