Sarajevo/Belgrade - Bosnians on Tuesday welcomed sentences handed down by a tribunal in Holland against two Bosnian Serbs convicted of war crimes, but said the punishment was too mild for the crimes committed. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday convicted Milan Lukic to life imprisonment. His cousin Sredoje Lukic received a 30-year prison sentence. Both were found guilty of crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the 1992- 95 Bosnian war.
"We don't know if the life imprisonment for Milan Lukic means that he will be sent to Sweden where he will serve two thirds of the punishment and then be out ... That would be a catastrophe and amnesty if it happened," Bakira Hasecic, head of the Association of Women Victims of War, told Bosnian media.
The two defendants were charged with personally taking part in the murder of at least 140 Muslims in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad. The civilians were locked in houses that were subsequently burned or blown up.
An editorial in Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz stated that Lukic's sentence "slowly brought back the shaken faith in the ICTY."
"I am happy with the sentence. The life imprisonment is the longest sentence the Tribunal could give," Murat Tahirovic, president of the Association of Bosnian Camp Survivors, told daily Oslobodjenje.
In Serbia, a spokesman of the country's War Crimes Court in Belgrade also welcomed the sentence as a "legal victory of (ICTY prosecutor) Serge Brammertz and his team."
"Milan Lukic, sentenced to life imprisonment, will be remembered in the history of our unfortunate wars for burning live children, women and old people and other vicious crimes," Bruno Vekaric, a court spokesman, told Belgrade media.
Serbia made its stance towards Lukic known long time ago when it sentenced him to the maximal sentence for a part of the crimes he committed, Vekaric said.
Serbia sentenced Lukic to 20 years in prison in absentia for another war crime in Sjeverin where he kidnapped and murdered 16 Muslim civilians.
Dusan Ignjatovic, the head of Serbia's Office for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, said that the sentence should bring some closure and peace to the victims.
"No body should remain untouched by the fact that the prosecutors proved that such vicious crimes happened," Ignjatovic said. "Now we should focus on the Visegrad victims and hope that the courts' ruling will bring some peace to them and their families."
Lukic's Hague trial began on July 9, 2008 and continued through May 20 this year. A total of 80 witnesses were heard, 45 of whom were called by the prosecution.
