[JURIST] Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and his former bodyguard Johan Tarculovski went on trial [press release] Monday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive]. The two men, the only Macedonians indicted by the ICTY, are charged [amended indictment, PDF; case backgrounder, PDF] with murdering seven ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten [HRW backgrounder] during a 2001 conflict between local ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government security forces. Tarculovski is accused of directing the attack on the village. As interior minister, Boskovski is accused of having command and control over the armed forces at the time of the alleged massacre. Both men deny the charges.

Boskovski and Tarculovski surrendered [JURIST report] to the ICTY in 2005 after being charged with war crimes. Boskovski has also been in prison for charges relating to the murder of seven immigrants while he was the interior minister in 2002. BBC News has more.