Bosnia Serb leader faces trial
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Krajisnik is charged with genocide in Bosnian war.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Momcilo Krajisnik, a former right-hand man of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, went on trial Tuesday at The Hague war crimes tribunal, charged with genocide in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Krajisnik is accused of taking part in a Bosnian Serb campaign to drive Muslims and Croats from their homes in a wave of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in a bid to carve out a unified Serb state during the collapse of multiethnic Yugoslavia.
Krajisnik, former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, pleaded not guilty at the U.N. tribunal in April 2000 to eight counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He was a close associate of Karadzic in Serb nationalist circles before and during the war. Prosecutors say the two worked together to drive Bosnian Croats and Muslims from large parts of Bosnia.
"Along with Radovan Karadzic, it was his hand which held firmly the levers of power and authority," prosecutor Mark Harmon said in his opening remarks in a trial expected to take at least two years.
Karadzic, one of the tribunal's most-wanted men, is on the run with a $5 million price on his head. He is charged with responsibility for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims and the brutal siege of Sarajevo.
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