The trial of Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Valentin Coric, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic and Berislav Pusic, which is expected to last at least two years, started before a packed gallery of Courtroom number 3.
The opening statement by prosecutor Kenneth Scott confirmed a previous statement by Prlic's attorney Michael Karnavas that the trial would be a trial in absence of the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and his policy of division of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s.
Scott started his opening statement by quoting Tudjman's statement from a transcript from the Office of the Croatian President dated 27 December 1991 saying that "time has come for the Croatian people to live within the widest possible borders" and that Croatia can survive only if it establishes a territory with the borders of the Croatian Banovina, a territorial entity that existed in 1939.
Scott put Tudjman's statements against a statement by one of the victims of ethnic cleansing in Stolac, identifying the victim as Samira, who said that on 4 August 1993 Bosnian Croat soldiers had forced her and 400 other Muslims out of their homes in Stolac.
Proving that this was not an act of mindless violence but organised and purposeful conduct that was part of a "joint criminal enterprise", the prosecutor went on to cite a statement by Tudjman in which he spoke about "the absurdity of Bosnia's borders" and transcripts of his talks with Bosnian Croat leaders, mentioning the accused only in the context of his conversations with them.
He cited a conversation of 21 September 1993 during which a local official boasted about Stolac having been cleared of Muslims, to which Tudjman responded that he was aware of that.
The territorial ambition of the joint criminal enterprise was the creation of a Greater Croatia and the participants in that enterprise, along with the six accused, were Tudjman, the late Croatian defence minister Gojko Susak, the late General Janko Bobetko and the late Mate Boban, war crimes indictees Dario Kordic, Tihomir Blaskic, Mladen Naletilic Tuta and others, the prosecutor said.
He pointed out the far-reaching effect of talks on the division of Bosnia between Tudjman and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, held in Karadjordjevo in March 1991. The conclusions of those talks were discussed in detail at subsequent meetings between Bosnian Serb and Croat leaders, the prosecutor said pointing out also the compatibility of territorial aspirations.
Tudjman believed that he and Milosevic would reorganise Yugoslavia and divide Bosnia-Herzegovina with no danger for Croatia, Scott said.
Tudjman backed Croatia's territorial ambitions with the overlapping of maps of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Croatian Banovina and with the 1991 maps showing the mixed ethnic composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"The survival of Bosnia-Herzegovina, even if it were possible, is contrary to Croatia's interests and poses a threat to the survival of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina," the prosecutor quoted one of Tudjman's statements.
The prosecution played a video recording which showed Tudjman saying that Bosnia had been part of Croatia before the Ottoman invasion.
Prosecutor Scott said that Tudjman had advocated the establishment of borders between the peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina and of regional communities and their subsequent unification. According to this plan, the Croats were expected to get part of the southern Croat-controlled area called Herceg-Bosna, the northern Croat-populated Sava river region, and the western Bihac and Cazin regions, which Tudjman believed would be an ideal solution for Croatia's national interests, Scott said.