The UN war crimes tribunal has agreed to hear charges of genocide against Mr Slobodan Milosevic during the Bosnian war.
The charges relate to atrocities during the 1992-1995 conflict. It is the third indictment against Mr Milosevic, who led Yugoslavia through four Balkan wars in the 1990s.
The Bosnia indictment is the first to include genocide, the most serious crime in the tribunal's statute.
Tribunal judge Mr Richard May confirmed the indictment, charging Milosevic with 29 counts, including genocide, complicity to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions.
The indictment alleges Mr Milosevic "participated in a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina".
It included responsibility for the murder of more than 7,000 Muslims from the UN-declared protected zone of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Mr Milosevic, extradited from Belgrade on June 28th, has already been charged for alleged war crimes in Kosovo and Croatia.
PA