Bosnian Serbs found guilty of hell camp crimes

The UN war crimes tribunal has found five Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity on for a "hellish orgy" of persecution…

The UN war crimes tribunal has found five Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity on for a "hellish orgy" of persecution in 1992 against Muslim and Croat prisoners at the brutal Omarska detention camp.

Four camp guards and a taxi driver, who entered the camp to beat prisoners, were sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison at the end of a 15-month trial which provoked comparisons between the camp's emaciated inmates and Holocaust victims.

Omarska, one of three main Serb-run camps in northwestern Bosnia set up during ethnic cleansing in the Prijedor region at the beginning of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was condemned as repulsive and despicable by the European Union.

Miroslav Kvocka, Dragoljub Prcac, Milojica Kos and Mladjo Radic - Omarska camp commanders - were sentenced to seven, five, six and 20 years respectively for crimes against humanity and war crimes between April and August 1992.

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Zoran Zigic (43) a local man who entered three major Serb detention camps in northwestern Bosnia, to beat prisoners with sadistic pleasure, received the stiffest sentence of 25 years.

Radic (49) who had the reputation of being the camp's most violent shift commander, was found guilty of raping women at the camp and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors had called for life sentences for Zigic and Radic.

The five, who pleaded not guilty, were sentenced for murder and torture in a reign of terror during which prisoners were raped, beaten to death, forced to drink their own blood and starved in a nauseating insanitary camp overflowing with prisoners.

"The Chamber states that you were perfectly aware of the system of persecution in place... and that you participated fully in it, in your own way, fully aware of what you were doing," presiding judge Almiro Rodrigues said.

"You participated in this hellish orgy of persecution," he continued.

The defence had called for acquittal, saying prosecutors had failed to prove the charges and the accused had not committed any crimes but were ordinary men who helped the inmates whenever possible.

But the three judges ruled that the men were cogs in a deadly wheel of Serb persecution. "Each of you, in a different way, made it possible for the cog to turn," the judge said.

"The corpses removed from there had open wounds to the skull, severed joints, slit throats... the accused heard nothing, saw nothing, did nothing," Mr Rodrigues said.

Omarska was the largest of three Serb-run camps in northwestern Bosnia where thousands of Muslim and Croat civilians were held and hundreds killed and tortured.

British radio, television and newspaper journalists gained access to the camps in August 1992. Their reports and footage of starving men behind barbed wire fences caused worldwide outrage and condemnation.

"These are the images which would make the international community react and are, perhaps, one of the reasons why this Tribunal was established, Mr Rodrigues said during an hour long verdict.

The Serb camps at Omarska, the site of an old iron ore mine, Keraterm and the village of Trnopolje were set up during fierce battles for territory in Bosnia during the break-up of former Yugoslavia.