Dikovic rejects all a?usations by Humanitarian Law Center

BELGRADE - Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubisa Dikovic has rejected all accusations by the Humanitarian Law Center (FHP), stressing that he did not take part in war crimes either as a soldier or as a commander.

"I have nothing to do with the accusations by the FHP, which has tarnished my reputation and the dignity of the institution that I am in charge of," Dikovic said in a talk show aired on Belgrade TV Pink on Monday evening.

He said that a smear campaign has been conducted against him for several years to date because of his participation in the armed conflicts in the capacity of a brigade commander in Kosovo-Metohija in 1999, and also a commander of the 16th Border Battalion in Bajina Basta until 1994.

Dikovic underscored that he never organized or took part in war crimes either as a soldier or as a commander, nor he ever incited others to commit war crimes in any way.

On the contrary, whenever I could, I did my best to prevent any crime, said the general.

"All crimes that I learned about were prosecuted," Dikovic said, adding that 15 members of his brigade were arrested in 1999 and handed over to the war crimes prosecutors.

Dikovic said that the FHP presented the first false accusations against him at the beginning of 2012, claiming that he participated in the 1995 crimes against Muslims, who came to Serbia after the developments in Srebrenica, while at the time he was not in (Serbian border town) Bajina Basta at all.

"I handed over the duty at the end of August 1994 and went to Belgrade for an additional training, so I could not be in Bajina Basta in 1995," said Dikovic.

It was only in November 1998 that I assumed the duty as the commander of the 37th...