ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnia-Herzegovina Army General Enver Hadzihasanovic and Colonel Amir Kubura for war crimes their subordinates committed against central Bosnia Croats from January 1993 to January 1994
began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague on Tuesday.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnia-Herzegovina
Army General Enver Hadzihasanovic and Colonel Amir Kubura for war
crimes their subordinates committed against central Bosnia Croats
from January 1993 to January 1994 began at the U.N. tribunal in The
Hague on Tuesday. #L#
This is the first case tackling solely command responsibility as
the accused failed to stop or punish their subordinates who
committed crimes, said prosecutor Ekkehard Withopf, adding that
both defendants, as former Yugoslav People's Army members, had been
aware of all the rules binding them to do that.
Hadzihasanovic, aged 53, and Kubura, aged 39, were indicted in
2001, alongside General Mehmed Alagic, on command responsibility,
for violations of the law and customs of war and grave breaches of
the Geneva Conventions. Alagic died of a heart attack in March.
They are the highest ranked Bosniaks to be tried by the Hague
tribunal to date.
All three were arrested in August 2001 based on a sealed indictment
filed the July before.
All pleaded not guilty upon arriving in The Hague.
The main criminal acts, over 20 of them, include murder, cruel
treatment, reckless destruction of towns and villages, plunder,
and deliberate destruction of sacral buildings, the prosecutors
said, adding that most of the victims were Bosnian Croats.
Kubura was commander of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army's seventh
Muslim brigade, which included Mujahedeens who, according to the
indictment, committed the gravest and most cruel crimes.
Prosecutors said the atrocities committed by the Mujahedeens
included throat-slitting and beheading as well as forcing captives
to kiss their fellows' severed heads.
The crimes Hadzihasanovic and Kubura are accused of also include
executions and massacres which followed attacks on villages and
towns in central Bosnia as well as crimes against captives,
including killing, harassment, forced labour, and use as human
shield.
At least 200 civilians, mostly Bosnian Croats, were killed, while
many more were wounded, the indictment says, adding that the
victims also included captured Bosnian Croat (HVO) soldiers.
The indictment says the civilians and soldiers were killed in the
villages of Dusine, Miletici, Maline, and Bikosi.
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