(7 May 1996) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

Bosnia's Muslim community has been carefully monitoring the trial in the Hague of a man accused of atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the four year war in Bosnia.

They say that Serbian bar owner Dusan Tadic is only a small fish compared to the most wanted on the UN's list of suspected war criminals - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander General Ratko Mladic.

In the first war crimes trial since the Second World War, Tadic went on trial this morning in the Hague, Netherlands.

It is here in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo that the U-N trial will be watched most closely.

Coverage dominated the Bosnian newspapers.

Tadic allegedly murdered more than 16 Muslims in and around the notorious Serb-run Omarska camp in northwestern Bosnia in 1992.

In one notorious incident, Tadic allegedly forced a prisoner to castrate another using his teeth.

He will claim he was in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Banja Luka at the time of most of his alleged offenses.

But despite all the alleged atrocities committed by Tadic, many Bosnian Muslims believe that others should stand trial as well..

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think that Tadic is small fish in the whole story about the Hague tribunal. I think that people who are supposed to be there are the leaders of the side who started this war, like Karadzic and Mladic."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

The trial was carried live on Bosnian television. Regular programming was cancelled to make way for coverage.

And it was watched everywhere - these injured Bosnian Muslims watched without much emotion on their face.

Bosnia's leaders hope that the trial will be the first of many.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's about time to start with those who committed war crimes. So we are pleased to see this process moving on. Unfortunately the main engineers of genocide are not there. And I think Mladic and Karadzic should be there."
SUPER CAPTION: Ejup Ganic, Vice President

But in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, few had any faith in the U-N tribunal.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"They accused him but he's not guilty, and I don't believe in the Hague Court and I don't recognize that I cannot tell anything good about this court."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

The tribunal has so far indicted 57 suspects, 46 Serbs, eight Croats and three Muslims.

But of these, just three are in custody in The Hague and a further four have been arrested and are awaiting transfer to the tribunal.

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