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Plavsic sentence shocks Muslims
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Relatives of Muslim victims of the 1992-1995 ethnic purge by Bosnian Serb forces have condemned as too lenient an 11-year jail sentence for a former Bosnian Serb leader. Biljana Plavsic, 72 -- the highest ranking Bosnian Serb leader to be brought before the U.N. war crimes tribunal at the Hague -- had pleaded guilty to the persecution of non-Serbs during the brutal purge of Muslims and other non-Serbs. "I am speechless. I cannot talk at all. I am shivering, I am completely shaken," said Mujesira Memisevic, whose husband and children and other close family members were killed during a Bosnian Serb ethnic cleansing campaign in eastern Bosnia. "The sentence is outrageously low," Memisevic told Reuters. Judge Richard May said the offences were "of the utmost gravity" and that nothing could disguise the horror of the crimes or their effects on the victims. "Undue lenience would be misplaced," he said. On the other hand there were "significant mitigating circumstances," he said. Plavsic had pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and urged other fugitives to surrender and face justice. She had promoted reconciliation after the war and had helped shorten the work of the tribunal. The court gave "significant weight" to the guilty plea in setting the sentence, Judge May said. It also took into account her age, he said, first on health grounds and then as "she may have little worthwhile life left." Prosecutors had demanded between 15 and 25 years' jail. The defense had asked for eight years, saying this was her life expectancy. Judith Armatta, an expert on war crimes law at the Coalition for International Justice, said she was surprised at the brevity of Plavsic's sentence. But she said the decision was difficult because of the many mitigating factors. "There should be more consistency in sentencing, but the rules are still being developed," she told The Associated Press. "This panel wanted to give some credence to her conduct, especially after the war." Some Muslims gave Plavsic -- the woman once dubbed Bosnia's "Iron Lady" -- credit for admitting guilt, saying it may bring reconciliation among Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and Croats. Muharem Muselovic, a Muslim from the northwestern town of Prijedor, spent six months in the Bosnian Serb detention camps notorious for their cruelty to non-Serbs. Up to 3,300 Muslims and Croats were killed in the area.
"Eleven years for all those lives, for all the sufferings is only a drop in the ocean and we, the former camp inmates, cannot be satisfied with that," he told Reuters by telephone from Prijedor. But fellow Serbs accused Plavsic of betrayal by admitting guilt. "Biljana Plavsic has betrayed Serb people because she admitted guilt before the Hague court," said an elderly Serb, who watched the sentencing on television in a cafe in the Bosnian Serb wartime stronghold of Pale, near Sarajevo. Bosnian Serb politicians said the sentence was too harsh, saying Plavsic was only formally part of the Bosnian Serb leadership that organized the bloodshed and not among decision-makers. "I am very depressed by this sentence and think that international justice was unjust to Biljana Plavsic," said former Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, who worked closely with the Bosnian Serb "Iron Lady" during her post-war presidency. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This is nothing compared to what misery I have seen in my life. This is the end of a road which I started a long time ago.
