The map of the Srebrenica area in eastern Bosnia was peppered with red triangles.
"These are the small-scale execution sites," the chief Srebrenica investigator, Mr Jean Rene Ruez, explained to the court, "those with less than 100 dead." He apologised that it had not been possible to put all the graves they had found on the map.
Across the small courtroom sat the accused, Gen Radislav Krstic (52), a general in the Bosnian Serb army (VRS), former deputy commander and then commander of the Drina Corps, whose deadly efficiency disposed of between 6,000 and 7,500 unarmed men and boys in four days in July 1995.
Yesterday his landmark trial, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, opened here in the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Between July 11th and 15th, Bosnian Serb troops launched an attack on the town which was brimming with refugees and ostensibly protected by the UN as a safe haven. Brushing aside the Dutch UN troops who put up no resistance, the Serb forces under Gen Radko Mladic entered the town, precipitating two panic-stricken evacuations.
In one, a column of 15,000 Muslim men, some of whom were armed, headed north through wooded country towards Tuzla. Although the front of the column broke through Serb lines many thousands were taken prisoner, under guarantees of safe conduct, evidence would show, in some case by Serbs disguised as UN soldiers.
Over the next few days the prisoners would be systematically executed and buried.
The other group of about 25,000 men, women and children were allowed to reach the nearby town and UN base of Potocari. From there they "negotiated" with Gen Mladic an evacuation across Serb lines. But when they tried to embark on buses the men and boys were separated from their families and taken away to be massacred.
Gen Krstic pleaded not guilty at his remand hearing in December 1998 and yesterday said nothing. A man of average height and unremarkable looks, he has a limp caused by a mine and greying hair that has started to recede. He listened attentively to the evidence with an unchanging expression.
The court's prosecutor, Mr Mark Harmon, described the Srebrenica killings as "an atrocity on a scale not seen since the second World War" and pledged that he would show the court that Gen Krstic, a professional soldier who had "dishonoured his calling", bore a direct criminal responsibility for the killings and ethnic cleansing.
He would show that Gen Krstic was in command of the Drina Corps, that he participated in the planning and execution of the forcible eviction of all the Muslims from what was supposed to be a UN safe haven, and that he was fully aware of and complicit in the murders being committed by troops under his command "while they were being committed".
The responsibilities of a senior officer when issued with an illegal order were clear, Mr Harman said. He had four choices: in international law he was bound to countermand it, he could resign, he could sabotage the execution of the order, or he could do nothing. But by doing the last "he could not wash his hands of international responsibility". Moreover, it was clear from evidence to be presented, he said, that Gen Krstic was an active participant in the planning of an operation whose huge scale demanded detailed preparation.
Everything from fuel for the transport lorries to organising the heavy equipment needed for mass burials pointed to the systematic involvement of Gen Krstic, Mr Harmon argued.
Evidence would place Gen Krstic at a meeting where his commander, Gen Mladic, threatened Muslim representative that they had a choice to "survive or disappear". Evidence would be produced of officers calling him to report on progress, and of one who said on an open line he had "finished the job".
And testimony would come from the few men who survived and one of his own soldiers who has already been convicted for his role in the events.
In a pre-trial brief arguing the defence case, Gen Krstic's main lawyer, Mr Nenad Petrusic, makes clear that the defence will not seek to dispute the facts of the massacres but will require the prosecution to prove Gen Krstic's immediate command role and deny that he was aware or even present at the time of the crimes being committed.
It is not sufficient, Mr Petrusic will argue, that as commander he would, in the prosecution's words, have been "aware of the substantial likelihood" of illegal acts.
The argument goes to the heart of the post-Nuremberg doctrines about the legal responsibilities of commanders in the field.
Orders, the courts have found, may be express or implied and can be inferred from circumstances such as the number of similar acts, their widespread nature, the logistics, and the number of troops.
And, the prosecution insists, the level of individual criminal responsibility actually increases as one moves up the chain of command.
The trial takes place before a three-judge panel consisting of Judge Almiro Simoes-Rodrigues (Portugal), Judge Fouad Riad (Egypt), and Judge Patricia Wald (US). The case is expected to run for months.
