THE HAGUE. Netherlands. July 6: A Bosnian Serb accused of orchestrating atrocities against scores of Muslims and Croats in three notorious prison camps is going on trial in the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal's first genocide case, reports AP.

Milan Kovacevic. 57. is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his "key role" in atrocities committed in the Pri-Jedor municipality of northwest Bosnia in 1992.

He has pleaded innocent to genocide and was scheduled to enter a plea to the other charges before his trial got under way Monday. If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence.

His trial, the UN court's seventh. was initially scheduled for May but was delayed when prosecutors filed additional charges against him. He now faces a total of 15 counts.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers were scheduled to present their opening arguments in the trial, which will publicise alleged atrocities in three of the Bosnian war's most infamous prison camps. Omarska. Ker-aterm and Trnopolje.

According to his Indictment. Kovacevic. an anesthesiologist, was among a group of municipal officials who engineered a violent campaign to expel Bosnian Muslims and Croats from Prijedor between April and December 1992.

Kovacevic was the vice-president of the so-called "Crisis Staff," which ordered attacks on non-Serb villages, the

selzure and detention of Bosnian Muslims and Croats and the establishment of prison camps

Tne alleged atrocities began with attacks on non-Serb vil-

lages involving heavy artillery bombardments by Serb forces. Some of those who survived the attacks were executed. Many others were rounded up and taken to one of the camps.