They made decisions and issued orders, Scott said, adding that evidence showed that the government of Herceg Bosna, headed by Jadranko Prlic, had all executive and legislative powers.

Prlic was in the centre of that government, and together with the President of HZ Herceg Bosna, Mate Boban, made all decisions, said Scott.

Commenting on the defence's claim that Prlic had neither the powers nor the responsibility ascribed to him by the prosecution, Scott said that there was clear evidence to the contrary, and that Prlic was clearly one of the main protagonists and people with power in their hands.

As for Herceg Bosna's former Defence Minister Bruno Stojic, Scott said that there was evidence proving his actual power and authority, noting that Stojic took part in negotiations with Serb representatives on the division of Bosnia's territory. Stojic is trying to shift his responsibility to Boban, but the prosecution believes that Boban delegated his powers to Stojic, said Scott.

Commenting on the defence's claim that the actual power in Herceg Bosna was in the hands of local HVO headquarters and not of the central government, Scott said that this was not true. Evidence has shown that the leadership of Herceg Bosna and the HVO exercised full authority, he added.

The crimes in Herceg Bosna were committed systematically on a big part of territory and they lasted so long that it is clear that they were not acts of individuals who could not be controlled, said Scott.

Those were acts of an organised government, he said, citing as examples the systematic blockade of convoy passage, the systematic shelling of civilian areas in the eastern part of Mostar, the setting up of camps where local Bosniaks (Muslims) were kept in inhumane conditions, and their being taken to the front lines for forced work.

Scott said that the absence of written documents on orders for the killing and expulsion of Muslims in the area which the Herceg Bosna authorities wanted to put under their control, could not be used as evidence, noting that such documents did not exist at the time of Nazism or Apartheid either.

Scott said that testimonies by 70 witnesses for the defence should be viewed through the prism of the fact that 61 of them were Croats and that half of them were members of Herceg Bosna's structures. Of the 70 witnesses, only two were Muslims, Scott added.

The six former officials of Herceg Bosna -- Prime Minister Jadranko Prlic, Defence Minister Bruno Stojic, the HVO commanders, General Slobodan Praljak and General Milivoj Petkovic, HVO Military Police commander Valentin Coric, and the head of the commission for the exchange of prisoners of war, Berislav Pusic -- are charged according to personal and command responsibility for crimes against humanity, grave violations of the Geneva Conventions and breaches of laws and customs of war committed against Bosniaks and other non-Croats in the areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina which they wanted to annex to Croatia.