Maltese Judge, Mr Justice Carmel A. Agius, president of Chamber II of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), is presiding over the case involving Ante Gotovina.

The case started being heard yesterday.

Ante Gotovina, a former Croatian General, who had been on the run for the past four years and was captured in Tenerife last Wednesday in a carefully planned joint operation by the Spanish and Croatian authorities.

He stands charged with persecutions, murder, plunder of property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, deportation and forced displacement, and other inhumane acts, which took place under his command and control, against the Serb population during and in the aftermath of the August 1995 Croatian military offensive known as Operation Storm.

It is alleged that during and after the offensive, Croatian forces attacked and took control of towns, villages and hamlets in the southern portion of the Krajina region during which they subjected the local Serb population to persecutions and plundered and destroyed their property. The indictment alleges that Croatian forces killed at least 150 Serbs in Krajina, while subjecting large numbers of others to inhumane treatment, humiliation and degradation.

In addition, it is stated that these forces also plundered and destroyed thousands of Serb-owned dwellings in the municipalities. Since its inception in 1993, the Tribunal has charged 162 persons for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. To date, proceedings against 88 persons have concluded. Six indicted persons including General Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic remain at large.

Mr Justice Carmel A. Agius has just started serving his second four-year term as a permanent judge of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Justice Agius was first elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations in March 2001, for a four-year period starting from 17 November, 2001 and was recently re-elected for a further period of four years. Justice Agius is the first Maltese judge to be elected by the United Nations’ General Assembly to sit on a UN international court.

Since the last two years, Justice Agius has occupied the position of President of Trial Chamber II, he is a member of the Bureau of the Tribunal, advising its president and also functions as Chairman of the Tribunal’s Rules Committee, which steers amendments to the Rules of Evidence and Procedure through the Judges Plenary.