Bosnia's war crimes court on Monday confirmed an indictment against three men accused of running a military prison where Serbs were beaten and persecuted in Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 war.

Besim Muderizovic, 59, Ramiz Avdovic, 56, and Romanian-born Iulian Nicolae Vintila, 47, were charged with taking part "in a joint criminal enterprise which aimed ... to introduce a system of inhumane treatment of Serb civilians," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

At the time Muderizovic ran a military prison of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army in Sarajevo, Avdovic was a commander of the guards, while Vintila was a guard at the jail.

According to the prosecutor, at least 200 Serb civilians were detained in the prison where they were beaten, persecuted and obliged to do forced labor, while 18 died while being held there.

Some 10,000 civilian residents of Sarajevo were killed during the 44-month siege of the capital by Serb forces in the inter-ethnic Bosnian war.

A number of Serb civilians in Sarajevo were killed by Muslim forces, although the figure can not be independently established and varies from 250 to 2,500 depending on the source.

Some 100,000 people were killed during the war in Bosnia, while some two million people - almost half the pre-war population - were displaced.