Bosnian Serb general on trial for war crimes

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Bosnian Serb commander during the siege of Sarajevo went on trial for war crimes Monday, accused of ordering his snipers and artillerymen to fire on civilians as they bought bread, tended vegetable gardens or attended victims' funerals.

Gen. Stanislav Galic, 58, looked on impassively as prosecutors drew a portrait of fear and suffering in their opening statement at the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Galic has pleaded innocent to seven counts of war crimes he says he never knew took place during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, a period when prosecutors say thousands of civilians were killed as they went about their everyday lives.

"A 3-year-old child was shot at the door of her home; a 9-year-old as she played in her garden. Civilians were shot in their homes as they watched television," said lead prosecutor Mark Ierace. "There was a constant fear of death."