Sarajevo - Bosnian Serb Vinko Kondic, charged with war crimes, pleaded not guilty Monday before the War Crimes Chamber of the Sarajevo-based State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the court said in a statement.

As the former police chief in the western Bosnian town of Kljuc, Kondic, according to the indictment, has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as perpetration of genocide during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in early 1990's.

The indictment alleges that he took part in the perpetration of criminal offences against non-Serb population - Muslim
(Bosniak) and Croat civilians in the area of Kljuc.

In November 1991, the indictment said, Kondic stopped a convoy of refugees from Croatia and took out from the bus at least 30 Croat men who were later tortured and sent to the Serb detention facility Stara Gradiska.

When the conflict spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, Kondic was active in arresting non-Serb population in the wider area of Kljuc.

Nearly 1,200 civilians, mostly Bosnian Muslims, were detained in those actions and transported to the Bosnian Serb-controlled Manjaca detention camp.

A number of the arrested men, according to the indictment, were also detained in a local school.

Many of them, at least 219, were later put on buses, taken into unknown direction and killed.

Vinko Kondic was arrested in December last year. (dpa)