Originally published on the CGS blog on June 11, 2010.
On Thursday, June 10th, the U.N.’s war crime tribunal on the Balkan wars handed down sentences of life in prison for two former high-ranking officers in the Bosnian Serb army, Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara. Popovic and Beara were convicted of genocide, a charge stemming from the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. The Srebrenica massacre was the largest mass killing in Europe since World War Two.
Additionally, another Bosnian Serb, former brigade security commander Drago Nikolic, was convicted and sentenced to a 35-year prison term for the crime of aiding and abetting genocide. Others on trial were acquitted of genocide but convicted for extermination, murder, and persecution.
Meanwhile, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is also on trial for genocide due to the Srebrenica massacre, following his arrest in 2008. Former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, under whom the convicted officers served, remains at large as a fugitive 15 years after his own indictment.
Citizens for Global Solutions believes strongly in the need for those individuals responsible for genocide to be brought to justice under international law. We applaud the U.N. tribunal’s decision as an important step in this direction. For more information on genocide prevention, visit http://www.globalsolutions.org/genprev. To take action on genocide prevention and other related issues, visit http://www.globalsolutions.org/action/home.
