Muslim commander on trial for Bosnia war massacres

31/01/2005 - 12:43:14
Bosnian Muslim commander Sefer Halilovic went on trial for murder at the UN war crimes tribunal today for the massacres of dozens of Croat civilians.

Halilovic, 53, is the highest-ranking Muslim army official to be tried for alleged crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. He has been accused of senior responsibility for massacres in the villages of Grabovica and Uzdol, Bosnia, in 1993.

A total of 62 people were killed and many of their bodies were dumped in the Neretva river.

In opening arguments, prosecutors in The Hague showed horrific amateur video footage of murdered children and elderly people, allegedly massacred by Halilovic’s men.

“The murdered Croat civilians were not combatants, nor were they taking part in military action, nor were they killed as the result of combat” said prosecutor Sureta Chana. “They were either in their beds or were attempting to flee in fear of the fighting.”

She named eleven victims in the village of Uzdor, including a 10-year-old boy, who had been shot in the back of the head, and several elderly people who had been fleeing fighting. In some cases their skulls had been smashed and their bodies were partially naked.

“The issue in this case is whether the accused failed to take the reasonable and necessary measures that were his legal obligation as a commander to take” to prevent the murders, Chana said. “The prosecution will prove at trial that he did not.”

Halilovic, who sat quietly watching the hearings, has pleaded innocent to a single count of murder, classified in the tribunal’s statute as a violation of the laws of customs of war.

If convicted he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Halilovic surrendered to the court in September 2001. He had been a government minister for refugee issues in the new pro-Western Bosnian cabinet until the court revealed a sealed indictment against him.