Bosnia/Serbia

Bosnian court convicts Serbs of genocide over Srebrenica

Article published on the 2008-07-29 Latest update 2008-07-30 10:50 TU

A forensic expert arranges bones to form the body of a victim of the Srebrenica massacre
(File photo: Reuters)

Bosnia's war crimes court sentenced seven Serbs to up to 42 years in prison for committing genocide during the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995. Those found guilty were sentenced to between 38 and 42 years in prison, while four others were acquitted. Six were found directly responsible in the murder of more than 1,000 Muslims in a single day in Kravice, said Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina judge Hilmo Vucinic.

"They consciously killed hundreds of Bosnian Muslims with the aim of permanently removing Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica," he said.

This act of genocide was part of a week-long killing spree conducted by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. The Muslim victims were first crammed into a small warehouse before they were killed.

Vucinic said there was evidence that those convicted were either armed guards who had  physically barred victims from trying to escape from the warehouse, or had fired machine guns and threw hand grenades at the prisoners.

The bodies of the victims were thrown into a mass grave, which was later moved to cover up the atrocity.

"The accused did not only deprive the killed men of their basic human rights, the right to life...they caused lasting pain to their families as some of them are still searching for the bones of their loved ones," he said.

This is the first time crimes committed in Srebrenica have been tried before the court, formed in 2005 to help deal with the numerous court cases handled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

It is also the first trial where the subjects were accused of genocide.

In related news, a rally took place Tuesday in Belgrade to protest Radovan Karadzic's transfer to the UN war crimes court in The Hague. Karadzic, a wartime Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested last week in the capital after more than a decade on the run. He has been accused of playing a leading role in the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.