KEY POINTS:
A war crimes trial against the Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj has opened with the prosecution labelling him as the man "who gave the world the term ethnic cleansing".
Seselj, 53, is accused of introducing belligerent nationalism that incited inter-ethnic hatred and led to the war between Muslims, Croats and Serbs in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and forced the dislocation of hundreds of thousands, most of them non-Serbs.
He started an enterprise with the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to create a "Greater Serbia" by inciting the forced removal of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs in large areas of former Yugoslavia. Seselj was Milosevic's right-hand man for a decade, and is believed to have done and said what Milosevic could not. Christine Dahl, the prosecutor, said in her opening statement that "prior to him [Seselj], ethnic balance was normal and Yugoslavia was a mosaic of nations".
His fierce engagement in warmongering rhetoric showed how words can lead to "unspeakable crimes".
The prosecution presented videos of Seselj's addresses to Serbs. He called for the "annihilation of others", with the help of his "volunteers", who simply by appearing would make non-Serbs flee whole areas of Bosnia or Croatia.
- Independent
