Serbs Convicted for Genocide in Srebrenica
Nu.nl, a Dutch news website, reports that several Serbs have been found guilty of involvement in the genocide against Muslim Bosnians in Srebrenica. Back in 1995, Serbs - Christians - forced the Dutch UN peacekeepers to hand Srebrenica over to them - or the Dutch simply surrendered without fighting because they lacked courage; whatever interpretation suits you. Shortly afterwards many Muslim men were killed by the Serbian forces.
The Bosnian Serbs - seven - were prosecuted for involvement of genocide in the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. The court itself was mixed; there were Dutch, American and Bosnian judges.
They were found guilty of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Muslims.
All seven were involved in a massacre in the village of Kravice. There were shooting with machine guns at every Muslim they saw. One of them considered the machine gun to be ineffective, so he threw handgranades at Muslim citizens.
The Bosnian war crimes tribunal said that the seven knew they were part of an effort to wipe out the local Muslim population.
Although none of the men could receive the death penalty, they will probably all die in jail; they all have to spend between 38 and 42 years in prison.
These convictions cannot bring those who died back, but it may perhaps bring closure to survivors of the attempted genocide. Justice has been served and it’s likely that more justice will be done in the coming years; Radovan Karadzic was arrested recently, and he faces of charges of planning the Srebrenica genocide.
