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The Hague, 16 Nov. (AKI) - A former Bosnian Muslim army commander has been acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague of charges relating to the 1993 massacres of Croatian civilians. Sefer Halilovic, 53, ex-chief of staff of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army, is the most senior Muslim indictee to be judged by the court. The three-judge panel said prosecutors had failed to prove Halilovic had been in charge of troops who carried out the killings in the villages of Grabovica and Uzdol.
Prosecutors 'failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt' that Sefer Halilovic was responsible for the killings, said Liu Daqun, the chief judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The judges said that vicious murders of women, children and innocent people in their beds had been committed, but that the prosecution had produced insufficient proof that Halilovic had effective control over the units that committed the crimes.
The villages were occupied during an operation by Muslim forces to capture territory held by Bosnian Croats to end a blockade of the city of Mostar in 1993.
Halilovic was a minister in the Bosnian government when he surrendered in 2001.
(Fmk/Aki)
16-Nov-05
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