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Ex-Serb leaders face U.N. court

Brdjanbin also controlled the Bosnian Serb media
Brdjanbin also controlled the Bosnian Serb media  


THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Two former Bosnian Serb leaders have appeared accused of genocide on the first day of their war crimes trial at The Hague.

Former Bosnian Serb deputy prime minister Radoslav Brdjanin, 53, and general Momir Talic, 59, were accused of responsibility for the torture, murder and expulsion of Croats and Muslims in northwest Bosnia during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

"The prosecution asserts that the accused are liable for genocide," prosecutor Joanna Korner said in her opening statement.

Talic and Brdjanin, who deny the charges, face life in a European prison if found guilty on 12 counts of war crimes, including genocide.

The men are charged with playing a pivotal role in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in territory under Serb control, led by the two men who have become the tribunal's most wanted -- Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.

Thousands were driven from their homes and hundreds killed during the bloody purge, which the indictment says was masterminded by Talic, 59, and Brdjanin, 53, as a "joint criminal enterprise" which aimed to forcibly and permanently remove Muslims and Croats from the territory where they had lived for centuries.

Talic and Brdjanin have been in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia since 1999.

Together with other Bosnian Serb leaders -- including Karadzic and Mladic -- the two conceived the creation of a Serb state in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"The creation of the Serbian state entailed a campaign designed to permanently remove by force, or fear, the non-Serb population from areas designated as part of the state," the indictment said.

In the 1990s Gen.Talic was Bosnian Serb chief of staff
In the 1990s Gen.Talic was Bosnian Serb chief of staff  

In April 1992, at the beginning of the war, Talic was an army commander and Brdjanin was the president of the so-called Bosnian Serb crisis staff for Krajina, which controlled 16 municipalities in northern Bosnia. Seven municipalities had a minority of Serbs.

Brdjanin was appointed vice president of the Serbian section of Bosnia known as Republika Srpska in September 1992. He is accused of facilitating the ethnic cleansing of Krajina "by securing all instruments of state power."

It is further alleged that he also controlled the media, which urged Bosnian Serbs to "commit crimes against their neighbours under the banner of defending the Serbian people."

Hundreds of people died when troops allegedly under Talic's command attacked unarmed Muslims and Croats in their homes, at work or in detention camps.

It is claimed in the indictment that civilians were beaten and forced to perform sexual acts on each other. The troops also destroyed Catholic churches and mosques during the siege.

The indictment holds Talic responsible as the commander, saying he failed to prevent his soldiers from committing crimes or to punish them.

Genocide is the most serious crime in the statute of the U.N. court. The tribunal has only one genocide conviction, that of Gen. Radislav Krstic. He was sentenced last August to 46 years in prison for ordering the attack on Srebrenica and the slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslims in July, 1995.



 
 
 
 


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