THE BIGGEST Bosnian war crimes trial to date got underway yesterday, as UN prosecutors accused Gen Tihomir Blaskic of permitting and planning war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.
Gen Blaskic (36), who was Bosnian Croat commander during the war in Bosnia in which between 150,000 and 200,000 people died, has already pleaded not guilty at earlier hearings.
He is being tried by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia not for acts he carried out himself, but rather for what he ordered and what he allowed his forces to do.
US Prosecutor, Mr Mark Harmon, told the court the prosecution would prove that, as a highly-trained military officer, Gen Blaskic knew what was happening and was responsible for some of the worst crimes and ethnic cleansing of the war.
Born in November 1960 outside Sarajevo and trained in the Military Academy in Belgrade, Gen Blaskic became commander of the Croat HVO militia in central Bosnia in June 1992. He rose to overall command in 1994.
One of the key charges concerns the bloody massacre at the village of Ahmici in central Bosnia, overlooked by Gen Blaskic's head-quarters, where 96 Muslim civilians were killed on April 16th, 1993, when Croat forces entered. The massacre was discovered by British UN troops five days later.
Part of Gen Blaskic's defence is that he was in an underground bunker when much of the slaughter was happening, and did not know what was going on.
After opening remarks from presiding Judge Claude Jorda of France, Mr Harmon told the court he would show that Gen Blaskic had been told by UN and EU officials, as well as his Bosnian Muslim counterparts, of illegal practices including the use of civilians as hostages and human shields and a series of massacres.
Gen Blaskic had "actual knowledge of all the crimes contained in the indictment" and had "disregarded" UN warnings about the crimes, the prosecutor claimed. "He was fully aware of these practices, that they were illegal, and he supported them."
Speaking to reporters outside the court, defence lawyer, Mr Russel Hayman, rejected the claims. Gen Blaskic had "not ordered" and had not known of any crimes being committed by his troops, he said. Instead, he had made "heroic efforts" to control rogue elements in his forces but in the "chaos" of the war had not been able to do so.
"There is no question that civilians died in Bosnia in the course of the war and there were many individual tragedies," Mrs Hayman added.
"At the same time, the prosecution's burden in this case is to show that Gen Blaskic not only had command on paper over Croat soldiers but he had control. It's a charge of command and control and we're confident that they will not be able to show control."
The bulk of the first day's hearing was devoted to a history lesson on the origins of the conflict delivered by a US academic. His evidence is expected to last around one week, the trial "at least" nine months.