Prosecutors opened their war crimes case today against the highest-ranking Bosnian Muslim yet to stand trial at the UN Hague tribunal.
Wartime Muslim commander Sefer Halilovic (53) is accused of failing to prevent the deaths of 62 civilians during a military campaign by his army against Bosnian Croat forces in 1993.
UN prosecutors say he planned and led the attacks on the Bosnian villages of Grabovica and Uzdol that were held by Bosnian Croat forces during the conflict between the country's Muslims and Croats in September 1993.
Halilovic, who was the Muslim-led army's chief-of-staff at the time, pleaded not guilty to a single charge of murder in an initial court hearing after he turned himself in 2001.
He is seen as a war hero by many Bosnian Muslims and before departing for The Hague he served as government minister for refugees and social affairs in Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation.
UN prosecutors said that following shooting in Grabovica, bodies of Bosnian Croat civilians were scattered throughout the village and some floated in a river that passed through it for the next two days.
"The accused was in the area and visited the village. He could not have failed to notice the bodies when they were strewn all around," prosecutor Sureta Chana said.
The prosecutor said Mr Halilovic did not take any serious steps to punish the perpetrators and "contemptously ripped up" an order from the army's highest commander instructing him to investigate the crimes and prevent similar actions.
Bosnian courts have already sentenced two of Mr Halilovic's soldiers to jail for taking part in the massacres. Bosnia's Muslims and Croats started the 1992-95 war as allies against the Serbs but fought their own war in 1993.