The trial of Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Valentin Coric, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic and Berislav Pusic started before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday. The six are indicted for crimes against humanity committed against Bosniaks and other non-Croats in the areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina that were intended to be annexed to Croatia in 1993/94, according to the indictment.
Scott started his opening statement by quoting the late Croatian President Franjo 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.
Later in the day, the prosecutor labelled the six indictees as the most powerful people in Herzeg Bosnia and that they were engaged in the joint criminal enterprise, and incited political, ethnic and religious rift and hatred as well as resorted to force and terror and persecuted and detained thousands of Muslims, employed them in forced labour and deported them.
Scott stressed that the indictment was not directed against Croatia or against the Croatian people, which some media have claimed, but that it was issued against a group of people who had embarked on a wrong path and a wrong policy, inflicting great suffering to many people.