Plavsic sits in a courtroom at the start of her sentencing hearings at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague

UNITED NATIONS, December 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Leading rights group Human Rights Watch slammed the U.N. Security Council for not standing behind the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, as former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic appeared before a U.N. court Monday, December 16, for her sentencing hearing.

“We are deeply disturbed by the Security Council’s inaction,” the Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch said Monday in a letter to the Security Council’s current president, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, Alfonso Valdivieso, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“The failure to take a strong stance in support of these two Security Council-created international justice mechanisms can only yield negative results,” Richard Dicker said.

“We believe the failure by the Security Council has already hardened or even encouraged the attitude of the U.N. Member States who are not cooperating with the Tribunal,” Dicker said.

“We feel that the Council should address non-cooperation by both Yugoslavia and Rwanda firmly and simultaneously,” he added.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was created by the United Nations late in 1994 to try genocide suspects.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague was set up in 1993. It is currently trying former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

In a separate related development, and in The Hague, Plavsic, the most senior official from the former Yugoslavia to plead guilty to charges of persecution, and the first woman before the tribunal, acknowledged her responsibility for atrocities during Bosnia's bloody 1992-95 war and in exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges against the self-styled “Serb Iron Lady” including those of genocide and conspiracy in genocide.

The 72-year-old, clad in a green, red and black plaid suit, chatted briefly before the hearing opened with chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte.

The prosecution told the court nine witnesses would appear for both sides during the three-day hearing, with the actual sentencing expected at a later date.

Former U.S. secretary of State Madeleine Albright will testify for both the prosecution and the defense to examine the importance of Plavsic’s guilty plea to the process of reconciliation in Bosnia, prosecutor Mark Harmon told the court.

She will testify as one of the last witnesses and is expected Tuesday, December 16.

The defense will further call Swedish diplomat Carl Bildt, the international community’s first envoy in post-war Bosnia, and U.S. diplomat Robert Frowick, former head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) mission in Bosnia.

On Monday, the prosecution called in a survivor from a Bosnian Serb detention camp for non-Serbs and a Bosnian psychotherapist who treated war victims.  

Meanwhile, Nobel peace laureate and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel also addressed the court on behalf of the victims and “their need and humanity’s need”, with an eye to seeing justice done in this case.

Wiesel praised Plavsic’s guilty plea before the U.N. war crimes court but reminded judges that nothing can excuse her crimes.

“Nothing can justify or excuse a crime against humanity. That said she is the only accused to have freely and wholly assumed her role... in the crimes set out in the indictment,” he said.

That should make her an example for similar cases, according to the Romanian-born author who survived the Auschwitz death camp in World War II.

Palvsic changed her plea in October to guilty on the count of persecution as a crime against humanity and prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges against her, including those of genocide.

Judges have scheduled the three-day hearing to help them in determining a sentence, taking into account evidence presented by witnesses for the prosecution and the defense.

Wiesel asked the court how Plavsic could have stayed silent about the atrocities all this time.

“How could she remain silent in the face of so much spilt blood,” he said, testifying through a video-link said.

In documents detailing her admission of guilt, no motives for Plavsic actions emerged.

She blamed Milosevic and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic for masterminding the campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

According to Plavsic, Milosevic worked closely with the Bosnian Serb leadership in the planning and execution of widespread persecution of non-Serbs.

“Certain members of the Bosnian Serb leadership collaborated closely with Slobodan Milosevic in the conception and execution of the objective of ethnic separation by force,” the plea states.

Bosnian Serb political leaders “frequently went to Belgrade to consult with, take guidance from or arrange support from Milosevic,” she said.

Milosevic has also been on trial in The Hague since February this year on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

Plavsic’s plea can be very important to the prosecution in the Milosevic case because it provides a direct link between the former president and the wartime Bosnian Serb leadership.

Although Plavsic has made it clear that she has not agreed to testify in any trial in The Hague, legal experts say she could be forced to take the stand after she is convicted.