Christians Under Attack

Sarajevo, 3 July (AKI) - Bosnian Muslim war-time military commander Naser Oric, convicted of crimes committed against Serb civilians during Bosnia's 1992-1995 civil war, returned home over the weekend to a hero’s welcome, while Serbs on Monday voiced outrage at the light sentence handed down to him on Friday by the United Nations' Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Oric, a military former Bosnian Muslim military commander in the eastern town of Srebrenica, was met by several hundred cheering supporters at Sarajevo airport, but made no statements. No high-ranking Bosnian officials were present.

Sulejman Tihic, a Muslim member of Bosnia’s three-man rotating state presidency rejoiced at the verdict and said it “clearly showed who the defenders of Srebrenica were, and who committed crimes.”

Prosecutors had asked for an 18-year jail-term for Oric, who was sentenced by the UN's International Tribunal for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to two years in jail for failing to prevent men under his command killing and mistreating Serb civilians in the town of Srebrenica in 1992-1993. Oric was immediately released however, because he had already served three years in detention. Some 3,000 Serbs were killed in Srebrenica under Oric's command, according to Serb sources.

Andreja Mladenovic, a spokesman for Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia, said on Monday that the verdict was “a slap at justice,” and proof that the Hague Tribunal had double standards.

“We have documents showing that 3,260 people were found dead around Srebrenica from 1992-1995, and 50 are still listed as missing,” said Mladenovic. “All the evidence shows that these crimes were committed by the units under Oric’s command”, Mladenovic added.
 
Mladenovic pointed out that 22 Serbs have been accused of war crimes when up to 8,000  Muslims were reportedly killed in Srebrenica in July 1995, and seven have already been sentenced to a total of 130 years. In that light, Oric’s verdict was regrettable, he said.
 
Serbian president, Boris Tadic, expressed his anger at Oric's sentence by saying that “a person gets a two-year sentence for stealing in supermarket, not for war crimes.”

Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) prime minister, Milorad Dodik said that Hague tribunal has betrayed the reason for which it was founded – to punish criminals and to contribute to reconciliation between three Bosnian nationalities, while foreign minister Mladen Ivanic said that the verdict was “an insult to the Serb war victims”.