February 28, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 26, 1423

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THE HAGUE, Feb 27: The Hague tribunal sentenced former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic to 11 years in jail on Thursday for crimes against humanity in one of the most significant judgments by the U.N. court in a decade.

Plavsic, dubbed the “Iron Lady”, is the most senior politician to be sentenced by the court. The 72-year-old gave an unprecedented “mea culpa” last year, changing her plea to guilty to one count of crimes against humanity in the Bosnian war.

The former academic looked tense as the verdict was read out. Dressed in a green jumper and blue blazer, she stood as the presiding U.N. judge pronounced sentence. A large gold cross hung prominently around her neck.

“Mrs Plavsic disregarded reports of widespread ethnic cleansing and publicly rationalized and justified it. No sentence which the trial chamber passes can fully reflect the horror of what occurred,” presiding judge Richard May said.

Plavsic, a stalwart in the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), admitted responsibility for atrocities against Muslims and Croats in the Bosnian war. About 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed or went missing in the conflict.

Prosecutors had urged a sentence of 15 to 25 years for Plavsic, the highest-ranking figure to admit to atrocities and the only woman publicly indicted by the tribunal. The defence said that would be tantamount to a life sentence for her and urged no more than eight years.

The court’s three judges took into account that Plavsic had contributed to peace and reconciliation by working to implement the 1995 Dayton accord, showed remorse, had pleaded guilty and surrendered voluntarily to the court, judge May said.

OUTRAGE IN BOSNIA: The sentence, less than a quarter of the 46 years imposed by the court in 2001 on former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic after he was convicted of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, provoked outrage in Bosnia.

“I am speechless. I cannot talk at all. I am shivering. I am completely shaken,” said Mujesira Memisevic, whose husband and children were killed during a Bosnian Serb ethnic cleansing campaign in eastern Bosnia.

Judith Armatta from the Coalition for International Justice commented: “I imagine many victims will be distressed and feel that it’s not sufficient. I think the court wanted to make a strong statement about her attempts for reconciliation.”

Some Muslims praised her for admitting guilt, saying it may help the eventual process of reconciliation among the country’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 said.

But another former inmate, Nusreta Sivac, said Plavsic’s confession of guilt was much more important than the length of sentence.

“Her guilty plea and call to other leaders to follow her example carry much more weight. The sentence is secondary here,” said Sivac, also from Prijedor.

Fellow Serbs, however, said her plea was wrong and accused Plavsic of betrayal.

“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.

The court still has to decide where Plavsic will serve her sentence. Nine European countries provide prison places for war criminals convicted by the tribunal. They include Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Sweden.—Reuters