Briefly Noted

Victims’ Anger at Srebrenica Acquittals

Bosnian court ruling finds three men not guilty of crimes committed in UN-protected enclave.

By Velma Saric in Sarajevo (TU No 576, 7-Nov-08)

The Bosnian war crimes court found three Serb ex-soldiers not guilty of war crimes charges this week, and sentenced a fourth to just seven years, sparking outrage from victims’ groups.

The four men on trial were military policemen serving with the Bosnian Serb forces which in July 1995 seized the town of Srebrenica, a United Nations-protected enclave, and killed around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys sheltering there.

Prosecutors in the case had sought sentences totaling 150 years’ imprisonment. However, although the judge ruled that the men had helped round up civilians, he said it had not been proven that they were directly involved in the murders.

“This is a disgrace. While we are looking at mass graves all day long, verdicts like this are made. I'm very unsatisfied with the Bosnian courts,” Sabra Kolenovic, a member of the Mothers of Srebrenica group, told IWPR.

Defendants Zdravko Bozic, Zoran Zivanovic and Zeljko Zaric were released from detention immediately, despite the judge’s finding that they had helped to guard buses holding Bosniak men.

Several protected witness, known only by pseudonyms, said the defendants had guarded detained civilians in Srebrenica, and had also been guards of a column of around 30 buses that shipped the men out of the town of Bratunac.

However, the court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that the defendants had abused or beaten prisoners, as was charged in the indictment.

Boris Grubesic, spokesman for the prosecutors’ office, told IWPR that prosecutors disagreed with the verdict and they would definitely launch an appeal.

Mladen Blagojevic was the only accused convicted on one count of crimes against humanity.

He was found guilty of having fired his machine gun at a school in Bratunac, which was being used as a detention centre for hundreds of Bosniak men, seriously wounding one of the detainees. The judge also said the defendant took part in separating the men out of the Bosniak population prior to the Srebrenica genocide.

Despite his conviction, his lawyer said the verdict was a triumph.

“All in all, we are content with the verdict, as my client was found not guilty of nine out of the 10 counts in the indictment. The court didn't accept any of the parts that claimed that he committed murder,” he said.

When deciding the length of sentence, Judge Stanisa Gluhajic said he had taken into account the fact that Blagojevic is a man with family, who had been young when his crime was committed, and who had behaved well during the trial.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.