The United Nations criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia found five Bosnian Croats guilty and acquitted one of crimes against humanity yesterday for the massacre of Muslims in a Bosnian village in April 1993.
The court handed down heavy sentences, which the prosecution hailed as a benchmark for future cases of ethnic cleansing.
In its seventh judgment since trials began in 1996, presiding Judge Antonio Cassese ordered that the five - brothers Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic, their cousin Vlatko Kupreskic, Drago Josipovic and Vladimir Santic - should serve sentences ranging from six to 25 years for killing 116 Muslims, including 33 women and children. The sixth accused man, Drago Papic, is to be released.
The defendants were flanked by a small group of lawyers and nine guards. Each accused, dressed in a suit, stood in turn as the rulings were delivered.
The five, all found guilty of persecution, some of murder, helped organise or participated first in shelling then in house-tohouse attacks in the town of Ahmici-Santici, as soldiers of the Croatia Defence Force (HVO) swept through the Lasva Valley from January to May 1993.
HVO soldiers with black-painted faces burned houses, barns and livestock in the cold-blooded massacre. One witness told the tribunal she stood on a balcony, her dead son below, as jeering Bosnian Croat soldiers told her to jump.
The case against the six was one of the largest in tribunal history. The three trial judges heard testimony from 158 witnesses over 15 months, although little mention was made of the possible role of Croatian authorities. The full judgment, which comes just 10 days before Croatian presidential elections, ran to 340 pages.
Judge Cassese described how the rampage resulted in the murder of Muslim inhabitants and the burning of 169 houses and two mosques. The "tragic episode" was aimed at expelling the Muslims from the village, he said, just stopping short of the highest war crimes count of genocide.
"Indisputably, what happened on April 16th, 1993, has gone down in history as one of the most vicious illustrations of man's inhumanity to man. Today the name of that small village must be added to the long list of previously unknown hamlets and towns that recall abhorrent misdeeds and make us shudder with horror and shame," Judge Cassese said, before listing such names as Dachau and My Lai.
Santic, commander of the notorious special purpose military police unit known as "The Jokers", will face the longest sentence of 25 years. Judge Cassese said Santic had undoubtedly passed on the orders of his superiors and, by his presence, encouraged his subordinates.
"The Trial Chamber finds that the fact that you, Vladimir Santic, were in a position of command during the events in question lends an even greater magnitude to your responsibility," Judge Cassese said.
Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic received 10- and eight-year sentences respectively as local commanders. Their cousin, Vlatko, a police operations officer whose house was used as a staging point, will serve six years. Dragan Josipovic, pinpointed for participation in the murder of a local Muslim, was given a 15-year sentence.
The prosecution spokesman, Mr Paul Risley, said the trial had proved the first test of direct ethnic cleansing brought before the tribunal.
"The verdict and the sentences set by the justices today are a benchmark for future cases of ethnic cleansing that will be brought by the prosecutor," he said.