THE HAGUE: The Hague war crimes court made history yesterday with the first jail sentence passed against a former president. Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic became the first top Balkan leader ever sentenced for war crimes when she was jailed for 11 years.
Plavsic was once dubbed the "Iron Lady" for her ruthless encouragement of Serb forces during the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia 10 years ago.
In the separate war crime trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lt- Gen Colm Mangan, gave evidence yesterday of what he witnessed in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik while there as part of an EU monitoring mission and the city was being shelled by Serb forces.
He said the hotels and other civilian installations were being targeted. "I was mystified," he told the tribunal. "The city was lightly defended and could have been taken," he said, implying that the Serb assault was aimed not at capture but at ethnic cleansing.
Lt-Gen Mangan is one of the highest ranking serving military officers to testify against the former Serbian leader.
Plavsic, a former professor aged 72, dressed in a green jumper and blue jacket, looked tense as her verdict was read out by a panel of three red-robed judges at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
"Mrs Plavsic disregarded reports of widespread ethnic cleansing and publicly rationalised and justified it," said presiding Judge Richard May. "No sentence which the trial chamber passes can fully reflect the horror of what occurred." Late last year Plavsic had pleaded guilty to charges of Crimes Against Humanity for her part in directing a war that claimed more than 100,000 dead and left millions homeless.
In December she issued a mea culpa saying she had been wrong, and apologising to her victims. Her lawyers argued that because of this, the judges should consider a light sentence, saying that anything more than eight years was, because of her age, effectively a life sentence.
Eleven years is a stiff sentence, but pales besides the record Hague sentence - 46 years - handed to Radislav Krstic, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of the massacre of 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
Judge May said the court had taken into account not only Plavsic's remorse, but also her support of Western-backed peace efforts following the signing of the 1995 Dayton Peace plan.
Court officials hoped that her mea culpa would win the court support among Serbs. But Serbia remains hostile to the court, with most thinking that Plavsic, far from admitting guilt, simply hoped for a lighter sentence. In fact, a very different message is likely to go out after the verdict - one that shows the tribunal is determined to make criminals pay.