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Bosnian Serb Camp Commander Jailed For War Crimes
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| Former Bosnian Serb camp Commander Milorad Krnojelac
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THE HAGUE, March 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.N. tribunal sentenced Friday a Bosnian Serb prison camp commander to less than a third of the sentence sought by the prosecution for "countless killings" of non-Serbs.
Milorad Krnojelac, 61, was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed from April 1992 to August 1993 in the KP Dom prison camp in the southeastern Bosnian town of Foca, one of the largest such camps during the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia.
He was charged with "repeated torture and beatings, countless killings, prolonged and frequent forced labor and inhumane conditions." The court sentenced Krnojelac to seven-and-a-half years in jail, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The tribunal took into account the attenuating circumstances that Krnojelac's "participation in these crimes was limited to his aiding and abetting the criminality of others", AFP reported.
However, the prosecution, which sought a sentence of 25 years, described Krnojelac as "a typical bureaucrat" who was never present when his subordinates meted out their terrible treatment.
Krnojelac has already served three years and nine months in detention, which will be taken off his overall sentence.
The U.N. tribunal declared December 10, 2001, that it would hand down its verdict Friday, March 15 against Milorad Krnojelac.
Krnojelac was then expected to receive the maximum penalty sought by the prosecution: 25 years in prison.
However, Krnojeleac's lawyers' argued that their client was not the prison camp commander but only head of its economic department and should therefore be acquitted.
From April 1992, KP Dom, one of the biggest prisons of the former Yugoslavia, was used by Serb authorities to detain and torture Muslims and other non-Serbs.
In 1992 the prison camp held approximately 600 detainees, almost all of them civilians according to the prosecution.
"Milorad Krnojelac persecuted the Muslim and other non-Serb males by subjecting them to prolonged and routine imprisonment and confinement, repeated torture and beatings, countless killings, prolonged and frequent forced labor and inhumane conditions within the KP Dom detention facility," according to his indictment.
"It was his work and he did it extremely well. There is not the least indication that he ever took into account the detainees' rights," said prosecutor Peggy Kuo during Krnojelac's trial.
A teacher before the war, Krnojelac rose to captain in the Yugoslav army. He was arrested in Foca in June 1998.
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