THE HAGUE (AFP) — Special units allegedly run by ex-Serb intelligence chief Jovica Stanisic and an accomplice acted as if they had a "licence to murder," during the Bosnian war, a UN war crimes court heard Tuesday.
The units organised by Stanisic and co-accused Franko Simatovic, each on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, believed they were entitled to both kill and reclaim land from people, alleged prosecutor Dermot Groome at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
A video in which members of one such group, known as the Scorpions, killed three men and three boys at point blank range after the fall of the Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia in 1995, was also shown to the court.
Stanisic's trial resumed Tuesday after numerous postponements due to his ill health.
"This trial is an examination of the conduct of the two people with primary responsibility for organising, training, funding and equipping members of the Serbian DB (state security service) to perpetrate grievous crimes on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia," prosecutor Groome told the court earlier.
This was done in the name of protecting the Serb people and securing for them an area "free of Croats and Muslims," he said.
"Stanisic and Simatovic... shared the intention of removing large groups of non-Serbs from their homes and land by force, using murder and persecution," he added.
"You cannot forcibly remove large civilian groups without committing grave crimes against them."
The units run by the two defendants acted as if they had a "licence to claim land from people, a licence to murder," he alleged.
Judge Alphons Orie told the court that Stanisic, who suffers intestinal problems and depression according to medical reports, had refused to be present for the start of the prosecution's case on Tuesday.
This despite conference facilities having been set up in the medical centre of the tribunal's detention unit for him to follow the hearing and provision for him to remain in direct contact with his lawyers by telephone.
Stanisic, 58, and his key aide and Simatovic, 59, have pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the murder, forcible transfer and deportation of Croats, Muslims and other non-Serbs from Bosnia and Croatia.
Stanisic was for seven years one of the most important officials of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who himself died in the custody of the ICTY in 2006, while standing trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The two had worked together, said the prosecutor, "to ensure that in the breaking up of the former Yugoslavia, a breaking up that appeared inevitable, they would make sure that Serbia came out on top... regardless of the cost or harm to other ethnic populations."
The Stanisic trial was to have started in February 2008, but was postponed several times due to his ill health.
In June last year, both men were granted a provisional release for Stanisic's health to be assessed. He was admitted to a military hospital in Belgrade.
In April this year, the court ruled that Stanisic was able to participate in the trial and ordered the two suspects to return to the tribunal's detention unit for the hearing to resume.
Special arrangements were made to accommodate him, including limiting court sittings to two afternoons per week and requiring weekly updates on his medical condition.
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