THE FIRST Bosnian Muslims to be charged with war crimes arising out of the conflict in former Yugoslavia faced the opening day of their trial before the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague yesterday
Mr Hazim Dehc, Mr Esad Landzo, Mr Zejnil Delalic, and a Croat associate, Mr Zdravko Mucic, laughed and exchanged mass; the tribunal began its first hearing.
Among the accusations against the four are that they beat elderly men to death with planks and baseball bats and that they tortured prisoners with pliers, acid electric shocks and hot metal pincers. One victim is said to have had a Muslim emblem nailed to his forehead.
The trial is the third before the tribunal but the first to charge Muslims as the alleged perpetrators of war crimes against Serbs. Of the 74 men so far named as war criminals - most of them Serbs - only seven are in custody
The four men currently on trial are charged with offences committed against Serb prisoners at the Celebici camp near Konjic in central Bosnia at the height of the conflict during the summer of 1992. Mr Mucic (41) was the camp commander and Mr Delalic (48) regional military commander. The men are the highest ranking so far brought to trial. Both have been charged with bearing command responsibility while the alleged crimes were committed.
Mr Delic (32), who was deputy camp commandant, is also charged with responsibility and with taking part in tortures, rapes and killings, as is Mr Landzo (24) who was a camp guard.
Mr Delic and Mr Landzo, who were arrested in Bosnia last May are the first to have been handed over to the tribunal by their own authorities. Mr Mucic was arrested in Vienna and Mr Delalic in Munich earlier last year.
All four have pleaded not guilty to up to 50 indictments, including at least 14 charges of murder.
Opening the prosecution case Mr Eric Ostberg, the Swedish prosecutor, said: "From the time the prison was first opened, the prisoners were subjected to horrible mistreatment . . . Prisoners were murdered, tortured and raped by soldiers who brought them into the prison, by guards at the prison and by outside persons . . . permitted to come
Nevertheless, the trial is being seen as an attempt by the UN to show even handedness.
The tribunal has been accused of bias by the Serbs and the arrests under UN warrant and handing over of Mr Delic and Mr Landzo by the Bosnian authorities have not been reciprocated by the Bosnian Serb authorities. They continue to harbour the two most prominent war crimes suspects, the former president, Mr Radovan Karadzic, and the military leader, Mr Ratko Mladic.
Up to 76 people are expected to be called to give evidence for the prosecution. Ms Teresa McHenry, a US lawyer who is on the prosecuting team, said: "Without exception the witnesses have explicitly directed us not to give out their home addresses. Even asking the question frightened them."
The maximum sentence the men could face would be life imprisonment under the terms and in the prison of a country prepared to accept them: perhaps Italy, where life sentences mean up to 10 years.
Rester adds from Nazrobi: The UN Rwanda genocide tribunal said yesterday it had delayed the start of its second trial at the request of prosecution lawyers.
Tribunal judges set the date of March 18th for the beginning of the trial of Mr Georges Anderson Rutaganda.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, dismissed two top tribunal officials late last month after a scathing UN report detailed administrative chaos, mismanagement, unqualified staff and legal chaos.
Mr Rutaganda, a Rwandan Hutu, was vice president of the extremist Interahamwe militia held responsible for massacres during the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. He is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.