The first trial of men suspected of committing war crimes in Macedonia is due to begin at The Hague.

Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and his ex-bodyguard Johan Tarculovski are accused of killing seven ethnic Albanians in 2001.

Prosecutors say there were no military targets in the area where the attack took place. Both men deny the charges.

Boskovski, 46, who was the last man indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, was said to have effective command and control over the forces from his position as interior minister.

Tarculovski, 32, is accused of directing the attack on the village of Ljuboten, the prosecution says.

A five-year-old was among those who died in Ljuboten, the court says.

According to charges presented by the court, the attack on Ljuboten was launched as retaliation for an attack which killed eight Macedonian soldiers.

During Macedonia's six-month insurgency in 2001 the country's nationalist government fought to suppress guerrillas from the country's ethnic Albanian armed groups.

Tarculovski and Boskovski were the last two men to be indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague over alleged atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia.

The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan, in The Hague, says while they are the first to face charges over events in Macedonia, more could arrive before the tribunal winds down in 2010.

PHOTO CAPTION

Albanian man Avdi Qahili touches the grave stone of his son Atullah Qahili who was killed in August 2001 by Macedonian forces in the village of Ljuboten, Macedonia, on Friday, April 13, 2007. (AP)

BBC