போஸ்னிய முஸ்லீம் தளபதிக்கு எதிராக போர்குற்றங்கள் டிரிபியூனல் ஆரம்பிக்கிறது

ஸ்ரெபிரெனிகாவின் முஸ்லீம் கமாண்டராக இருந்த ரஸிம் டெலிக் பல்வேறு போர்க்குற்றங்களை செய்ததாக அவர் மீது ஐக்கியநாடுகள் நீதிமன்றத்தில் போர்க்குற்றங்கள் வழக்கை தொடர்ந்திருக்கிறது

Rare trial against Bosnian Muslim starts Monday at UN court
by Frederic Bichon

Send by e-mail Save Print One of the few Bosnian Muslims indicted by the UN court for the former Yugoslavia, general Rasim Delic, is set to go on trial Monday on charges of war crimes for atrocities committed by Islamic volunteer fighters under his command.

Delic, the former commander of the main staff of the Muslim dominated Bosnian army, faces charges of war crimes in a trial that will focus on the role of so-called Mujahedin volunteer fighters from Arab countries who came to support the Bosnian Muslims in the bloody 1992-95 war.

The trial opens amid legal wrangling over the indictment. Last week the prosecution protested that the judges forced them to limit the indictment against Delic and requested the case be transferred to be tried before a local court in Bosnia.

On Wednesday last week the trial chamber hearing the Delic case denied a prosecution demand to postpone the opening of the trial to await a decision on the transfer request. However, on Friday there was an emergency hearing to consider the transfer but no decision has been announced yet.

Delic, 58, has denied all the charges against him. He handed himself in to the tribunal in February 2005 and was provisionally released while awaiting the start of his trial.

According to the indictment Delic knew or had reasons to know that his subordinates were committing atrocities "and failed to take the necessary and reasonable measure to prevent and punish these crimes".

The indictment specifically mentions the execution of over 20 Bosnian Croats in a massacre in the Bosnian village Maline in June 1993 by units of the 3rd corps of the Bosnian army and mujahedin fighters.

The general also faces charges over murders, acts of torture and beatings carried out by the so-called El Mujahed unit in a detention unit for Bosnian Serb soldiers called Kamenica Camp in July and September 1995. Finally Delic is charged with failing to prevent the rape of three Bosnian Serb women in the same detention camp.

The El Mujahed unit of the Bosnian army, set up by Delic in August 1993, was composed of some 1,700 soldiers including at least 500 fighters from foreign Islamic countries. The unit had a reputation of criminal behaviour.

After the war several videotapes and photos emerged showing decapitation of Bosnian Serb soldiers by the unit. A number of ex-Islamic fighters confirmed in interviews that the tapes were made by the El Mujahed unit.

During the trial of another high-ranking Muslim commander Sefer Halilovic, the former chief of the supreme command staff of the Bosnian army, who was acquitted in May 2005 on charges of murder, the pivotal role of Delic -- his superior -- was stressed.

Apart from these two former commanders no other high-ranking Muslims have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which causes Serb complaints that the court is biased.

At the moment only two cases with Muslims are awaiting appeal before the UN court. One is the case against the former Muslim commander in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, convicted to two years for murder and cruel treatment of Bosnian Serb prisoners in 1992 and 1993.

The other involves general Enver Hadzihasanovic and officer Amir Kubura, sentenced to respectively five and two and a half years in prison for their role in war crimes committed in central Bosnia.