Halilovic is charged with responsibility for the murders of 33 Grabovica residents on September 8 that year and another series of killings in the village of Uzdol shortly afterwards, all allegedly carried out by men under his command.
Prosecutors say he took no proper steps either to prevent the crimes from taking place or to punish the perpetrators afterwards.
A former Bosnian army officer this week denied that his superior Halilovic was present at a key meeting in Grabovica on the day of the massacre, when it is alleged that a commander implicitly suggested soldiers should kill Croat residents.
This part of his testimony conflicts not only with the indictment drawn up by prosecutors against Halilovic, but also with the evidence given by series of witnesses up to now who have confirmed he was present at the meeting.
The witness also said that after the Grabovica events, he followed up on a request by the accused to launch an investigation into what happened in the village, but this came to nothing.
Later in the week, a Bosnian journalist told judges that Halilovic subsequently showed him an order he had received to carry out further investigations, and to consider whether a major military operation in the area should be cancelled.
But the general told him he would continue to push ahead with the mission anyway.
Prosecutors say Halilovic arrived in Grabovica on September 8 1993 along with other commanders involved in the “Neretva-93” operation to relieve the blockade on the city of Mostar.
During his visit, they say, the officers gathered together troops who were billeted in the village and spoke to them about how the operation would proceed. It was at that meeting that some of the soldiers asked what they should do about the fact that some Croat residents in Grabovica had objected to letting them stay in their homes.
Prosecutors allege that in response to this question, and with Halilovic present, one officer, Vehbija Karic, drew his hand across his throat and suggested the troublesome residents should be summarily tried and thrown in the nearby river.
Halilovic, they allege, took no significant action in response to this comment.
Two of the army units present in the village already had a well-established reputation for lawlessness at the time. They had only recently been involved in an abortive coup, and they were also known for robbing and mistreating civilians in Sarajevo.
Speaking in court this week, Dzankovic confirmed that senior officers visited Grabovica on September 8, just hours before the killings occurred. But he denied that Halilovic was among them.
The witness went on to say that he first heard about the killings in the village soon after they started that same evening.
Afterwards, he said, there was tension amongst army officers stationed in the area, with one commander - Ramiz Delalic, also known as Celo - threatening to withdraw and take his troops with him if an investigation was launched into the incident.
But he said when he met with Halilovic in a hotel in nearby Jablanica, the general told him he didn’t condone what had happened in the village, and instructed him to gather as much information as possible and to inform his superiors in Sarajevo of his findings.
He said the general also instructed members of the interior ministry to launch an inquiry.
“When I started working with the investigation and after I sent my first report, Halilovic said, ‘Outstanding, keep working’,” the witness said.
But having looked into the matter, Dzankovic said, he concluded that it would be difficult to carry out an investigation on the ground because of tensions with Delalic’s men, who were suspected of involvement in the crimes.
Instead, Dzankovic recommended to his superiors in the army general staff that soldiers who had apparently witnessed executions in the village should be questioned on their return to Sarajevo.
He also recommended that Delalic should be instructed to submit a written report on what had happened.
But the witness told judges that the reports he sent to Sarajevo received no replies, and his recommendations were not put into practice.
Later in the week, judges heard another take on events which appeared to suggest the investigations never got beyond this stage.
Sefko Hodzic, who worked as a reporter during the war for Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje and covered the Neretva-93 operation, said he first learnt about the killings in Grabovica the day after they occurred.
Afterwards, he told judges, Halilovic showed him an order from Rasim Delic, head of the Bosnian army’s supreme command body.
The order required him to launch a full inquiry into the question of whether a “genocide” had occurred against civilians in Grabovica, identify any perpetrators and send the responsible commander to Sarajevo.
It also obliged him to initiate an investigation into whether the scale of the Neretva-93 operation should be reconsidered, or even whether it should be called off altogether, given what had occurred.
The witness said in their conversation about the document, Halilovic completely avoided the subject of investigating the reports of war crimes.
But he did inform the journalist that, despite the words of caution from Delic, the operation would not be toned down and he would continue to push ahead as planned.
Delic is currently in detention in The Hague, having been charged with responsibility for crimes committed by foreign Islamic “mujahedin” fighters during the war in Bosnia.
Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR contributor in Zagreb.
