UN court convicts 6 Bosnian Croats of atrocities

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A United Nations court convicted six Bosnian Croat political and military leaders Wednesday of persecuting, expelling and murdering Muslims during Bosnia's war as part of a plan supported by leaders in neighboring Croatia to establish a Croat state in Bosnia.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convictions underscored Croatia's involvement in Bosnia's 1992-95 conflict.

A majority of the three-judge panel says that late-Croat President Franjo Tudjman was a key member of a plan to carve out a Croat ministate in Bosnia with the aim of later uniting it with his country to create a greater Croatia, or leaving it as a separate independent state.

The court handed down sentences ranging from 10 to 25 years' imprisonment for the six suspects.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_WAR_CRIMES_BOSNIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-29-06-19-37

[Adsos Letter]

1. Good. n/t

[pampango]

2. "The tribunal indicted 161 suspects, from Milosevic to a young Serb soldier." All have faced justice

The court has proved that — with patience and help from the international community and local authorities — war crimes tribunals can get their hands on suspects, even if they don’t have their own police force. The tribunal indicted 161 suspects, from Milosevic to a young Serb soldier who was part of a firing squad responsible for massacring Muslims in Srebrenica, and all who survived long enough have faced justice either in The Hague or local courts. “One of the achievements is for sure that there are no fugitives at large any more,” said the court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz.

Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and his wartime military, chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, avoided capture for years before they were finally arrested in Serbia. Both are now standing trial in The Hague, though their cases were adjourned Monday as new Dutch King Willem-Alexander joined other dignitaries for a ceremony in the tribunal’s lobby.

The arrests of the likes of Karadzic and Mladic give hope to the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court, based in a former telecom company office on the other side of The Hague, which is struggling to get custody of some of its most senior indicted suspects, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and a Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, a son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Meron said that one of the tribunal’s key achievements was demonstrating that an international court could deliver justice impartially.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/mixed-reviews-for-un-yugoslav-war-crimes-court-as-it-marks-20th-anniversary-of-establishment/2013/05/27/61620fa8-c6d9-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html