War atrocities

A UN war crimes court in The Hague sentenced former Yugoslav army general Momcilo Perisic to 27 years in jail on Tuesday for aiding and abetting Balkan war atrocities including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The ex-Yugoslav army chief was found guilty on 12 of 13 charges, including murder and persecution at Srebrenica, scene of Europe's worst massacre since World War II. Perisic was also found complicit in the shelling and sniping of the Bosnian Serb capital, Sarajevo, during its siege from 1992-1996.

Bakone Moloto, presiding judge for the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said Perisic knew the Bosnian Serb army's actions "encompassed grave crimes against the civilian population."

The judge said Perisic oversaw logistical assistance to Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia which included a "vast quantity of infantry and artillery ammunition, fuel, spare parts, training and technical assistance."

Sentence is 'too grave'

Perisic becomes the first Belgrade official to be convicted for Serbia's roles in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia - a role the government in Serbia has always staunchly denied.

Serbia's Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac has described the sentence as "too grave."

"It certainly opens old wounds and no matter how hard we try to work on reconciliation, news like this takes us back to the past and creates certain problems and makes one sick in the stomach," he said.

Perisic's lawyer said his client was disappointed with the judgment, adding that they would be filing a "vigorous and robust" appeal.

Links to Mladic

Perisic was chief of staff - the head of the Yugoslav army - from 1993 until 1998 when he clashed with Slobodan Milosevic over the government's policy in Kosovo. Milosevic himself went on trial in The Hague for war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, but died in detention before the court proceedings ended.

It was Perisic who personally signed Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic's promotion to the rank of colonel general in 1994. Mladic has been indicted for genocide by the Yugoslavia tribunal and was arrested in May.

However, the court did not find that Perisic had command authority over Mladic. "Even though General Perisic had a collaborative relationship with Mladic and substantially aided his operations, the evidence does not establish that he exercised effective control over him," said Moloto.

The Yugoslav army paid the salaries and pensions of top officers, including Mladic, despite their long record of committing war crimes, the court said.

The ICTY has indicted 161 Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Albanians for war crimes committed during the bloody breakup of the Yugoslav federation in the 1990s, in which at least 130,000 people were killed.

Author: Catherine Bolsover (Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler