The Hague  - A former Serb general accused of war crimes in the 1990s Balkan War did not act to stop attacks on civilians or seek punishment for perpetrators of those attacks, prosecutors said at the start of his trial on Thursday.

The trial of Serb General Momcilo Perisic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had been set to start Wednesday, but was delayed due to a procedural error.

Prosecutor Mark Harmon argued as the trial started that Perisic was a loyal follower of former Serb President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 in the Hague before his own war crimes trial could be completed.

Perisic, the former chief of staff of the Yugoslav army is charged with crimes committed during the Balkans war, including the shelling of Zagreb, the massacre in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

He was first indicted in February 2005. After his transfer to ICTY custody in March 2005, he was granted provisional release in June of that year. The charges were amended in February 2008 and he returned to ICTY custody on September 18.

In 1995, Perisic's immediate subordinate, General Ratko Mladic - who has been charged by the ICTY but remains at large - captured and executed about 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men in the enclave of Srebrenica. Perisic is alleged to have known about the planning and execution of the massacre.

He has also been accused of providing personnel, material and logistical assistance to the Serb army in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia.

In addition, he is charged with allegedly assisting in the planning and execution of the siege of Sarajevo between August
1993 and November 1995.

According to the indictment, Perisic failed to prevent or punish the criminal acts committed by his subordinates, several of whom have meanwhile been prosecuted and sentenced by the ICTY.

The trial is expected to take several months. (dpa)