20/12/2005 - 14:19:09

The landmark trial of five Serb militiamen charged with the videotaped murders of six young Bosnian Muslims in 1995 opened in Belgrade today.

The former Serb paramilitaries who fought in Bosnia were arrested earlier this year and charged with war crimes against civilians after the video was aired at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, and subsequently broadcast by TV stations in Serbia and Bosnia.

The five face up to 40 years in jail if found guilty. Serbia has abolished death sentence.

The gruesome amateur footage, made by the Serb troops near Srebrenica in 1995, showed six Bosnian Muslims being taken from a truck, hands tied behind their backs, and lined up on a hillside.

Four were shot dead in their backs, while the other two were ordered to carry the bodies into a nearby barn, where they, too, were killed.