THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Dec 1 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnian Muslims -- Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura, accused of war crimes committed against Croats in central Bosnia from January 1993 to January 1994, will begin before the UN war
crimes tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague on Tuesday.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Dec 1 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnian Muslims --
Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura, accused of war crimes
committed against Croats in central Bosnia from January 1993 to
January 1994, will begin before the UN war crimes tribunal (ICTY) in
The Hague on Tuesday. #L#
Hadzihasanovic (aged 53), a general of the Bosnian Army, and Kubura
(aged 39), who holds the rank of lieutenant, were jointly accused
with General Mehmed Alagic of violations of laws and customs of war
and serious breaches of the Geneva conventions on the basis of their
superior criminal responsibility. They were charged with murder
and torture as well as infliction of serious suffering to Bosnian
Croats. All the three indictees were arrested in August 2001 on the
basis on the sealed indictment, issued in July that year.
Alagic died of heart attack this summer.
Hadzihasanovic was commander of the Bosnian Army's 3rd Corps from
14 November 1992 to 31 October 1993. On 21 July 1993 Kubura was
appointed commander of the Corps 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade which
also included Mujahedeen. Under the indictment, they perpetrated
the most heinous crimes.
The three former commanders of the Bosnian army are charged with
murder, massacres committed after attacks on villages and towns in
central Bosnia, and crimes their units committed against prisoners
of war, such as killing, torture and forcing POWs to dig ditches or
using them as human shields.
Those crimes claimed lives of at least 200 civilians, most of whom
were Bosnian Croats. The number of the wounded was higher. In
addition, Bosnian Army troops killed HVO (Bosnian Croat Defence
Council) soldiers upon arresting them.
The areas which were attacked by units commanded by three indictees
were parts of Bugojno, Busovaca, Kakanj, Maglaj, Novi Travnik,
Vares, Vitez, Zavidovici, Zenica and Zepce. The operations came to
a head from 7 to 13 June 1993.
Civilians and captured soldiers were killed in the villages of
Dusine, Miletici, Maline and Bikosi. In Dusine seven villagers and
HVO soldiers were killed in January 1993, in Miletici four HVO
members were killed in April, and about 30 villagers and HVO members
were killed in Maline and Bikosi in June 1993.
Hadzihasanovic and Kubura were witnesses in the trial of HVO
commander General Tihomir Blaskic, accused of war crimes Croat
soldiers perpetrated in central Bosnia.
In December 2001, Hadzihasanovic and Kubura and the late Alagic
were provisionally released pending trial.
(hina) ms