Karadzic ally gets 27 years'

2006-09-27 22:27

The Hague - The United Nations war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced Bosnian Serb politician Momcilo Krajisnik to 27 years in prison for his role in the campaign of "ethnic cleansing" during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, but acquitted him of genocide.

Krajisnik is one of the highest ranking Bosnian Serb politicians to be convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the Bosnia war, in which 200 000 people died.

The judges concluded that although Krajisnik was part of a joint criminal enterprise that was aimed at driving Muslims and Croats out of parts of Bosnia and there was some evidence that genocidal acts did take place, it could not be proved that he had intended to commit genocide.

According to the judges Krajisnik - a close ally of fugitive Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - "knew about and intended mass detention and expulsion of civilians".

"Mister Krajisnik wanted the Muslim and the Croat population moved out of Bosnian Serb territory in large numbers and accepted that a heavy price of suffering, death and destruction was necessary to achieve Serb domination and a viable statehood," Orie said.

Detention camps

The former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament was found guilty of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forced transfer.

In the early years of the war, Bosnian Serb forces launched widespread attacks on Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat villages, killing many people and forcing the remainder to leave.

They also set up detention camps where thousands of non-Serbs were held in inhumane conditions and subjected to torture and sexual assault.

The prosecution had asked for a life sentence.

Throughout his trial Krajisnik had maintained his innocence and said he did not know of any crimes being committed.

- AFP