THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 3(Hina) - The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik, the former Bosnian Serb entity parliament speaker and one of the key Bosnian Serb political leaders who is charged with genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina committed in
1991/2, began before the war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Tuesday.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 3(Hina) - The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik, the
former Bosnian Serb entity parliament speaker and one of the key
Bosnian Serb political leaders who is charged with genocide in
Bosnia-Herzegovina committed in 1991/2, began before the war crimes
tribunal at The Hague on Tuesday.#L#
Prosecutor Marc Harmon said in his opening statement that Krajisnik
had been a truculent politician and hard-line nationalist and one of
the key architects of Bosnian Serb policy, a policy of mass crimes
which he added Europe had not seen since World War Two.
Harmon said Krajisnik was on trial for ethnic cleansing, murder,
persecution, deportation and the destruction of villages and sacral
facilities.
The indictment charges the 59-year-old Krajisnik on individual and
command responsibility with two counts of genocide and complicity in
genocide, five counts of extermination and killing, persecutions on
political, racial or religious grounds, deportation and inhumane acts
as crimes against humanity, and with one count of killings as
violation of the laws and customs of war.
He is also charged with participation in the "joint criminal
enterprise" from July 1991 through December 1992, the objective of
which, under the indictment, was the partial destruction of national,
ethnic, racial or religious groups of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian
Croats throughout Bosnian territory with a view to annexing it to a
new Serbian state.
Krajisnik participated in the enterprise with Radovan Karadzic,
Biljana Plavsic, Nikola Koljevic, Slobodan Milosevic, Zeljko
Raznatovic Arkan, Ratko Mladic and other Yugoslav People's Army
generals.
According to the prosecutor, Krajisnik was very close to Karadzic with
whom he held the reigns of power and authority over Bosnian Serbs by
holding the highest posts in the legislative and executive
authorities.
Krajisnik was a key figure in the implementation of an ethnocentric
policy which aimed at eliminating non-Serbs from territories wanted by
the Serbs, was aware of the horrendous consequences that policy
entailed but remained indifferent, said Harmon.
Enclosed with the indictment are cases of mass killings in villages of
18 Bosnian municipalities of 37 from which non-Serbs were cleansed, as
well as executions in hundreds of Serb-held detention camps.
The prosecutor played tapes of intercepted phone conversations between
Krajisnik and Karadzic in which they talk about the armament of Serbs,
the creation of a Serb state with hundreds of thousands of victims,
and control over 65 percent of Bosnia.
Harmon also quoted from JNA reports on the distribution of 70,000
pieces of weaponry to Serbs in Bosnia and from transcripts of meetings
with top figures in Belgrade at which ethnic cleansing in Bosnia had
been planned a year before the war in Bosnia broke out.
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie said the trial might take two years. The
prosecution has been given about 100 days to present its evidence,
excluding cross-examination.
Krajisnik's attorneys, Great Britain's Nicholas Stewart and
Australia's Crista Lucas, did not make their opening statement,
postponing it for their presentation of evidence.
Judge Orie said the trial would be adjourned after the first four
weeks until April 13, to give the defence more time to prepare.
The trial was to have started last May but was postponed after chief
defence attorney Dejan Brasic of the U.S. was suspended by the New
York Bar Association.
Krajisnik was arrested by the NATO-led Stabilisation Force in Bosnia's
Pale on 3 April 2000. In his first appearance in court he pleaded not
guilty to every count.
(Hina) ha