Massacre colonel sentenced to 17 years

A Bosnian Serb colonel who pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity was sentenced to 17 years in prison today for helping carry out the infamous massacre of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica, Bosnia.

Colonel Dragan Obrenovic, 40, was acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade in early July 1995, one of two brigades that carried out the bulk of killings when the UN safe haven of Srebrenica fell in the closing days of Bosnia’s three-and-a-half year war.

More than 7,000 men and boys were killed in one week, in the worst civilian slaughter in Europe since the Second World War.

The ruling, handed down by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, said the gravity of Obrenovic’s crimes were heightened by the helplessness of his victims.

Obrenovic had the power to stop the killings if he had wanted, the court said. His authority was such among his subordinates that they “would follow him down the barrel of a cannon”.

Obrenovic stood with downcast eyes as presiding Judge Liu Daqun of China read the sentence.

Liu said the court had considered Obrenovic’s remorse, his cooperation with the tribunal, and his conduct before the war as factors easing the severity of the sentence.

The prison term was 10 years shorter than one handed down by the same tribunal last week against a lower-ranking officer, Captain Momir Nikolic, who changed his plea to guilty before Obrenovic did.

Liu said Obrenovic’s sentence “should not be interpreted as a dismissal of the gravity” of what happened at Srebrenica, but Obrenovic “did not conceive of the murder operation” and his share of guilt was not as great as that of others.

Obrenovic pleaded guilty in May to one count of persecution as a crime against humanity and then testified against two co-defendants.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped four counts of murder, extermination and complicity in genocide and recommend a 15-20 year sentence.

At a sentencing hearing last month, prosecutor Peter McCloskey said Obrenovic had assisted the prosecution by confessing his role as commander of the troops who carried out the killings.

He also testified in the appeal hearing last month of his superior officer, Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic, the only man convicted of genocide by the Yugoslav tribunal for his role at Srebrenica. Krstic has been sentenced to 46 years in prison.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is also being tried at the UN court for genocide in Bosnia.