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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Prosecutors on Thursday wereoutlining their evidence of the alleged involvement of formerBosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic in Europe"sworst mass murder since World War II, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. On the second day of the 70-year-old"s genocide trial , Yugoslav war crimes tribunal prosecutors will focus on the bloodyclimax of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, when Serb forces systematicallyexecuted some 8,000 Muslim men and boy in the U.N.-protectedenclave in northeastern Bosnia and buried them in mass graves. Mladic is accused of commanding Bosnian Serb troops who waged acampaign of murder and persecution to drive Muslims and Croats outof territory they considered part of Serbia. His troops rainedshells and snipers" bullets down on civilians in the44-month-long siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. He has refused to enter pleas, but denies wrongdoing. On Wednesday, the frail, 70-year-old defendant had an angryexchange of hand gestures with the families of massacre victims inthe public gallery, separated by the bulletproof glass in thecourtroom. "Vulture!" said one woman in the gallery. Mladic fled into hiding after the war and spent 15 years as afugitive before international pressure on Serbia led to his arrestlast year. Now he is held in a one-man cell in a specialinternational wing of a Dutch jail and receives food and medicalcare that would likely be the envy of many in Bosnia. But the fact that he is jailed and on trial is seen as anothervictory for international justice and hailed by observers asevidence that — more often than not — war crimestribunals get their indicted suspects, even if years later. Prosecutors say they will use evidence against Mladic from morethan 400 witnesses, although very few of them will testify incourt. Much of their evidence already has been heard in other casesand will be admitted as written statements. "The world watched in disbelief that in neighbourhoods andvillages within Europe a genocide appeared to be inprogress," prosecutor Dermot Groome said at the U.N. court inThe Hague, as Mladic's trial opened on Wednesday. Twenty years after the war that left 100,000 dead, Bosnia remainsdivided into two ministates — one for Serbs, the other sharedby Bosnian Muslims and Croats — linked by a centralgovernment. In another court Wednesday in The Hague, former Liberian PresidentCharles Taylor faced a sentencing hearing after being convictedlast month of aiding rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone"scivil war. That is heartening news for the International Criminal Court, whichhas indicted the likes of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir forgenocide but appears nowhere close to having him arrested. In a demonstration of Bosnia"s continuing ethnic divide,Mladic"s entrance in court was applauded by people whogathered in the Serb stronghold of Pale to watch the trial on TV. "Mladic is our hero. It"s sad that we see himthere," said Milan Ivanovic, a 20-year-old law student. Groome told the three-judge panel that Mladic was hand-picked byBosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic because of his skills as amilitary commander, but also "because Karadzic believed hewas willing to commit the crimes needed to achieve the strategicgoals of the Bosnian Serb leadership." He signalled that prosecutors would use Mladic"s own wordsagainst him in the trial, drawing on the former general"swartime diaries, radio intercepts and appearances on televisionduring the war. In one such TV appearance, Mladic showed a news team around theSerb artillery dug into hills overlooking Sarajevo and denied anyinvolvement in war crimes — foreshadowing his defence nowthat his actions were intended only to protect Serbs. "I did not take part in any crimes. I have only defended mypeople," Mladic said. He denies wrongdoing but has refused toenter pleas to the 11 charges against him in The Hague. In another video, however, he is heard boasting: "Whenever Icome by Sarajevo, I kill someone in passing. … I go kick thehell out of the Turks" — a denigrating reference toBosnian Muslims. Groome said Mladic "held Sarajevo in the palm of hishand," playing an intercepted radio communication of theformer commander ordering the shelling of part of the city and avideo of civilians scurrying across devastated streets to avoidsniper fire. The attacks were part of an "overarching" plan byKaradzic and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to drivenon-Serbs from large parts of Bosnia and to carve out a"Greater Serbia" from the ruins of the formerYugoslavia, Groome said. Karadzic is also on trial at the tribunal following his 2008arrest. Milosevic was put on trial here, too, for fomenting warsacross the Balkans, but he died of a heart attack in 2006 beforejudges could deliver their verdict. Prosecutors say they will use evidence against Mladic from morethan 400 witnesses, although very few of them will testify incourt. Much of their evidence already has been heard in other casesand will be admitted as written statements. The first witness is to start testifying May 29, but PresidingJudge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands hinted that he may postponethe case because prosecutors have not disclosed all the evidence toMladic"s defence. Bosnia"s president hailed the trial"s opening as ahistoric day in the still-bitterly divided country"s recoveryfrom its war wounds. "First of all, we are expecting from this trial thetruth," said Bakir Izetbegovic. "The truth and thenjustice for the victims, for the families of the victims. It is theworst period of our history." Mladic gave a thumbs-up and clapped toward the gallery as the trialgot under way. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion asprosecutors outlined his alleged crimes. After the brief exchange between Mladic and the gallery, Orierebuked both about "inappropriate interactions" andsaid he might shield the defendant behind a screen if the outburstscontinued. Munira Subasic, who lost 22 relatives in the Srebrenica massacre,claimed Mladic made a throat-slitting gesture toward her after shehad held up both her hands, wrists crossed to indicate Mladic wasin captivity. In Srebrenica, widows and mothers of the massacre victims gatheredto watch the trial together and were outraged at Mladic"sapparent lack of emotion. Suhreta Malic, who had more than 30 relatives killed in themassacre, cried as she sat in front of the TV with photos of herdead children in her hands. "This is so painful for us. It really hurts," she said."We did not lose some chicken. We lost our sons.". 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