Monster who ordered the massacre of Muslims

WHEN Slobodan Praljak ordered his troops to blow up a world-heritage monument, he had few scruples about its destruction.

The army general said it was ‘just an old bridge’, whose removal would keep the warring Croats and Muslims apart.

It had stood in Mostar for 427 years until Praljak – a failed Croatian theatre director-turned militia leader – trained his artillery on it in November 1993.

Its destruction has come to symbolise Praljak’s attempts to create an ethnically Croatian enclave, with the city of Mostar as its capital. The former warlord was born 72 years ago in Capljina, a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina – close to the Croatian border.

After working as a film and TV producer as well as a lecturer in Zagreb, he joined the Croatian military in 1991, advancing to the rank of major general.

As head of the Bosnian Croat forces known as the HVO, Praljak took part in the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in several Bosnian towns. He was charged by the UN with nine breaches of the Geneva conventions – including wilful killing, sexual assault, unlawful deportation and confinements of civilians.

Praljak was also charged with eight counts of crimes against humanity – including persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, murder, rape, deportation, inhumane acts and imprisonment.

The most notorious of the charges related to his role in the massacre of Bosnian Muslim civilians in Stupni Do. He had served four years in prison when he committed suicide yesterday.

After the end of the war, plans were launched to reconstruct the Stari Most bridge that was destroyed on his orders.

The World Bank and the UN helped lead the international effort to have it rebuilt as closely as possible to the original, using the same technology and materials.

Construction work started in June 2001 and finished three years later at an estimated cost of £12million.