Ex-head of Bosnian Muslim army to go on trial

In this file photo, Bosnian General Rasim Delic sits in the court room during his initial appearance at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, March 3, 2005. sits in the court room during his initial appearance at the U.N. Delic is due to go on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Monday charged with responsibility for rape, torture and murder of Bosnian Croats and Serbs by his troops. Serge

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The former leader of Bosnia's Muslim army, Rasim Delic, is due to go on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Monday charged with responsibility for rape, torture and murder of Bosnian Croats and Serbs by his troops.

Delic, one of the most senior Muslims to appear at the tribunal, is accused of failing to punish alleged atrocities committed by foreign Islamic fighters under his command, and of having been aware of their propensity for violence.

Prosecutors, however, are seeking a last-minute suspension of the trial and its transfer to a Bosnian court after the tribunal judges limited the amount of time to hear prosecution witnesses, as the court came under pressure to wind up its work by 2010.

Prosecutors say this limits the scope of the trial and makes The Hague, where those charged with the greatest responsibility are tried, an inappropriate venue.

On Friday they renewed their plea for a postponement, after a first request was denied on Thursday.

Many Islamic fighters, or "mujahideen", came from North Africa and the Middle East to support fellow Muslims during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. They moved from giving out food to local Muslims to fighting alongside their forces.

The indictment details an occasion when mujahideen indiscriminately shot dead 24 captured Bosnian Croats outside the village of Maline in June 1993.

It also alleges that in 1995 a captured Bosnian Serb soldier was beheaded in a prison camp and all other Serb prisoners were forced to kiss the severed head, which the mujahideen then placed on a hook in the room where prisoners were held.

Delic, 58, is one of a handful of Bosnian Muslims to stand trial in The Hague for alleged war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Most accused are Serbs but the court has indicted senior figures from all three Bosnian ethnic groups.

Bosnia's Muslims and Croats began the war as allies against the Serbs but then fought each other for territory.

Delic surrendered to the tribunal in February 2005, and had been given provisional release before he was recalled into custody in The Hague last month.