Croat General gets 45-year term

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, MARCH 4. The United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has handed out its longest sentence so far to the Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic, condemning him to 45 years in prison. The sentence demonstrates that the U.N. court is, for the first time, frontally addressing the issue of command responsibility, a question that has dogged war crimes prosecutors since the Nazi trials in Nuremberg.

General Blaskic was condemned for atrocities committed by members of the militia he commanded during the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995. He was convicted on all counts and pronounced guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1948 Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians.

General Blaskic's troops conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Muslim villages north east of Sarajevo. Several hundred Muslims were killed and thousands fled the area as a result. The village of Ahmici was the scene of some of the worst slaughter, with over 100 Muslim men being killed. The judges said the fact that the General had not personally carried out the killings did not matter at all ``since the chain of command'' had been satisfactorily established.

The sentence could affect Croatia's efforts to fully cooperate with the tribunal. Croatia's new Prime Minister, Mr. Ivica Racan, described the sentence as ``very harsh''. He said it would have to be reviewed through the appeals process. Several members of the Croatian Government condemned the sentence as being too harsh, especially given the fact that the General had not personally taken part in the killing.

Under the former President, General Franjo Tudjman, Croatia had adopted a policy of non-cooperation with the tribunal. The new Government came to power promising to cooperate with the U.N. special body. This sentence will, however, strengthen the position of nationalists within Croatia who have always agitated for non-cooperation with the court.

Croatians are feeling particularly bitter about the ruling given the fact that General Blaskic gave himself up to the tribunal. Mr. Zlatko Kramaric, who leads the Liberal Party, a member of the ruling coalition, said the General ``ended up as a pawn in the play where others pulled the strings.''

Mr. Racan expressed dismay that such a sentenced was handed down against a Croat General while the worst perpetrators of war crimes in the Balkan conflict, Mr. Radovan Karazdic and General Ratko Mladic, continue to remain at large. ``When they are brought to The Hague we will be able to give an overall opinion of the tribunal's work,'' the Prime Minister said.

The sentence indicates that the tribunal's new chief prosecutor, Switzerland's Carla del Ponte, is determined to adopt a tougher line against alleged war criminals in the former Yugoslavia.

The tribunal depends on the cooperation of local leaders and U.N. peace-keeping troops to capture and hand over suspects or persuade them to give themselves up. Gen. Ratko Mladic, the notorious Serbian military leader, who was responsible for the killings in Srebrenica and the former Bosnian Serb leader, Mr. Radovan Karazdic, continue to remain a thorn in the side of both the SFOR peace-keepers and the tribunal.

Officials at The Hague tribunal say they would like SFOR and NATO to play a more proactive role. Carla del Ponte has been insisting on the need to create a special task force that could work anywhere in Bosnia. However, SFOR officials are afraid of reaction from local populations, particularly the Serbs and have been reluctant to carry out arrests.

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Section  : International
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