THE HAGUE - Seven top Bosnian Serb military officials return to court Monday charged over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Muslims in the biggest ever joint trial at the UN war crimes court here.
Chief UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte will outline the prosecution case with an opening statement that will seek to turn the spotlight on some of the key men allegedly behind the slaughter of nearly 8,000 men and boys.
By far the two most important indicted suspects, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
Nevertheless, the case at The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is seen as a significant step in judging the single worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
It formally opened on July 14, but that hearing was devoted to procedural matters before the court went into its summer recess.
The Srebrenica massacre was one of the most gruesome episodes of the bloody 1992-1995 Bosnian war and the only one the tribunal has ruled as genocide.
Six people have been convicted so far over the atrocities, two of them on genocide charges.
Five of the seven men on trial Monday face charges of genocide as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity. All have pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution insisted on a joint trial to save time as well as to spare witnesses, including survivors, the agony of giving repeated testimony about what they endured.
The defendants facing genocide charges are: Ljubisa Beara, 67, the chief of security of the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army; Vujadin Popovic, 49, an officer allegedly responsible for managing the military police; Ljubomir Borovcanin, 46, the deputy commander of the Bosnian Serb special MUP police; Vinko Pandurevic, 47, the commander of the Zvornik brigade that led the attack on Srebrenica; and Drago Nikolic, 48, chief of security for the Zvornik brigade.
The other two, Radivoje Miletic, 58, and Milan Gvero, 68, are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prosecutors say the men, officers who were attached to the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army, were responsible for blocking aid and suplies to Srebrenica.
From 1993, when it came under UN protection, the enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia was flooded by thousands of Muslim refugees driven frim their homes by a Bosnian Serb offensive.
The town was cut off from the outside world by Serb troops, while food and medical supplies were scarce.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces finally overran the town, separating women and children from the men and boys they deemed to be of fighting age.
More than 8,000 men and boys were summarily executed at several locations around Srebrenica. The lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers protecting the enclave failed to act against the onslaught.
The victims were initially buried in a dozen mass graves around Srebrenica although, in a bid to cover up a massacre that quickly became world news, the Bosnian Serbs moved the remains to other locations.
So far the remains of around 6,000 victims have been exhumed from about 60 mass graves around Srebrenica, while more than 2,500 have been identified by DNA analysis.
Remains of other victims, preserved in around 3,500 body bags in a special morgue, are still awaiting identification.
When the trial formally opened in July it was an emotional occasion.
In opening comments, Del Ponte recalled her visit to a Srebrenica memorial service in Bosnia a few days earlier, but defence lawyers objected, saying her speech was "emotive."
Despite Del Ponte's protests, the judges finally ruled that she must stop, and told her to give her statement in August.