Bosnia sentences Serb ex-soldier to 20 years for war crimes

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – A court in Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced former Serb soldier Rade Garic to 20 years in prison Monday for committing war crimes during the 1990s.

The court in the capital Sarajevo said that Garic, as a member of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), was involved in the murder, detention, torture, rape and exile of Bosniak civilians in Vlasenica in 1992.

It also said that Garic took an active role in the army’s systematic attacks in Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Bosniak men were brutally murdered in July 1995.

Garic's trial began in October 2018.

- Srebrenica genocide

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces attacked Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops.

The Serb forces were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

In the spring of 1993, the UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a “safe area.” However, troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic, who was later found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, overran the UN zone.

Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing some 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone.

About 15,000 residents of Srebrenica fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 more people.

Bodies of victims have been found in 570 different places in the country.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica.

On June 8, 2021, UN tribunal judges upheld a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, extermination, and other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.