he Hague, Netherlands ? Slobodan Milosevic smiled across a U.N. courtroom Thursday as prosecutors accused him of genocide, the gravest charge he faces, claiming he was the kingpin in a plan to wipe out Bosnia’s Muslims.

On the opening day of war crimes hearings on his role in the 1991-1995 wars in Croatia and Bosnia, Milosevic portrayed Serbs as victims of ethnic aggression and said his policies had been aimed at peace, not war.

The first part of his trial, on the 1998-1999 Serb crackdown on the Albanians in Kosovo, ended Sept. 11 and hearings were adjourned for two weeks to give Milosevic time to prepare for the next stage of the proceedings.

Prosecutors plan to call 177 witnesses, including Croatian President Stipe Mesic and former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic, to prove their case, expected to last well into the spring of 2003.

Trial prosecutor Geoffrey Nice described Milosevic as the undisputed leader of a “joint criminal enterprise” established in the early 1990s with the sole aim of creating a pure Serbian state in Yugoslavia.