Bosnian Serbs get life sentence for Srebrenica atrocity

TWO BOSNIAN Serbs have been sentenced to life imprisonment for committing genocide against Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995, and five of their former comrades have received lighter sentences for their role in Europe’s worst atrocity since the second World War.

Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara were high-ranking security officers in the Bosnian Serb army that overran Muslim forces and a woefully outnumbered United Nations battalion that was supposed to protect the so-called “safe haven” of Srebrenica.

Forces led by Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic are accused of killing some 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica, seizing and executing many after assuring them that they would not be harmed, and slaughtering others as they fled through the forests and hills that surround the town.

Judges at the UN court at The Hague ruled that Popovic (53) had organised and watched the execution of prisoners at a school in the town of Orahovac.

“He knew that the intent was not just to kill those who had fallen into the hands of Bosnian Serb forces, but to kill as many as possible,” the judges said in their ruling.

Beara (70) was found to have co-ordinated the murder of Muslim prisoners and organised mass burials of their bodies.

“Beara had a very personal view of the staggering number of victims destined for execution,” the ruling read. “He was intent on destroying a group by killing all the members of it within his reach.” Drago Nikolic (52), the chief of security for the brigade that led the attack on Srebrenica, was convicted of crimes including murder and persecution and sentenced to 35 years in jail, while four other former officers received sentences of between five and 19 years for related crimes.

The judges said the defendants’ most serious crimes had been committed under orders from Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who sought to create “an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival” for Srebrenica’s Muslims.

Dr Karadzic is being tried at the UN court for genocide, where the same charge awaits the fugitive Gen Mladic. He has been on the run since the end of Bosnia’s 1992-5 war, and his whereabouts are unknown. Serbia is unlikely to be be offered European Union membership until he is found.

The trial which ended yesterday was the largest to date at the tribunal, with 315 people testifying.