Bosnian Serb iron lady jailed for 11 years

Biljana Plavsic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who expressed remorse for the horrors committed against non-Serbs during the Bosnian war, was today jailed for 11 years by the UN war crimes court.

Judge Richard May said Plavsic – known as the Iron Lady – participated in crimes of ”utmost gravity” during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and that “undue lenience would be misplaced.”

But the court in The Hague gave her credit for pleading guilty and helping to bring peace and reconciliation after the war.

Plavsic, 72, is the highest ranking politician from the former Yugoslavia to be sentenced by the court so far. Former Yugoslav President Slobodon Milosevic has been on trial before the same tribunal of three judges, but that case is expected to continue for another year.

The court said it took into account Plavsic’s advanced age and the testimony on her behalf by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others, who said she had played an important part in carrying out the peace agreement negotiated in 1995 in Dayton, Ohio.

At the same time, Plavsic, who was second only to wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, closed her eyes to murder, torture and plunder, the court said.

“The crimes were of the utmost gravity. That is the starting point for the determination of sentence,” said May.

“Having given due weight to the factors set out, the Trial Chamber sentences you to a period of 11 years,” he said.

Experts estimate that more than 200,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war, the worst carnage seen in Europe since the Second World War, as Serbs led a campaign to drive out Muslims and Croats from Serb-dominated areas and create a unified greater Serbia.

Judge May, a Briton, recounted that Bosnians were “mistreated, raped, tortured and killed” in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that Plavsic embraced and promoted.

“No sentence which the trial chamber passes can fully reflect the horror of what occurred or the terrible impact on thousands of victims,” he said.