BOSNIA - COURT HANDS DOWN STIFF SENTENCES,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 001236 SIPDIS EUR FOR STUART JONES, EUR/SCE (HOH, FOOKS, STINCHCOMB), S/WCI (WILLIAMSON, VIBUL),INL (MARNEY),INR (MORIN); NSC FOR BRAUN; OSD FOR BEIN; DOJ FOR OPDAT (ALEXANDRE) E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2008 TAGS: PGOV PREL KAWC KJUS BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - COURT HANDS DOWN STIFF SENTENCES, ACQUITTALS IN LANDMARK SREBRENICA CASE REF: SARAJEVO 1087 Classified By: MICHAEL J. MURPHY FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: On July 29, a first instance panel at the State Court convicted seven individuals accused of killing more than 1000 Bosniak men and boys in the Kravica Farming Warehouse Cooperative on genocide charges, but acquitted four other defendants due to insufficient evidence of their participation in the killings. This was the first time that a court in Bosnia handed down genocide convictions; the sentences handed down were also the toughest war crimes-related sentences by a local court to date. Contacts at the State Prosecutor's Office and a judge on the case told us that they were pleased with the results. Public reactions to the decision in this landmark case have been limited, but mostly positive. Notably, politicians and political parties have refrained from commenting publicly on the case except for the Serb Democratic Party (SDS),which blasted the Court for making a &political8 decision. Like the Radovan Karadzic arrest, the Kravica decision is an important step in the quest for justice for victims of war crimes in Bosnia, particularly Srebrenica, and their families. The case is also an important "win" for the State Court. END SUMMARY HISTORIC DECISION RENDERED IN KRAVICA CASE -------------- ¶2. (U) On July 29, a first instance panel at the State Court found seven defendants guilty of killing more than 1000 Bosniak men and boys in the Kravica Farming Warehouse Cooperative near Srebrenica in July 1995, but acquitted four other defendants in the case. All eleven defendants -- ten former members of the Republika Srpska (RS) Special Police from Sekovici and a member of the RS Army -- had been charged with genocide. This was the first time that a domestic court handed down a genocide conviction. The sentences were also the toughest war crimes-related sentences handed down by the courts to date. Milenko Trifunovic, Aleksandar Radovanovic, and Brano Dzinic received sentences of 42 years; Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic, and Branislav Medan received sentences of 40 years; and Petar Mitrovic received 38 years. All seven are expected to appeal their sentences. Four other defendants -- Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Miladin Stevanovic, and Milovan Matic -- were set free because prosecutors failed to prove to the court that the four men had participated in the killings. (Note: Two other Kravica-related cases, each involving a single defendant, are proceeding separately. End Note) THE VIEW FROM THE STATE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE, THE COURT -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) Prior to the announcement of the Kravica decision, contacts at the State Prosecutor's Office told us privately that they doubted all eleven defendants would be convicted of genocide and speculated that some might be acquitted (Reftel). They said that the case had been &overcharged8 because Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic (who is on extended sick leave) had been under political pressure to secure genocide convictions. After the court decision was announced, our contacts described the verdicts as &good results8 but stressed that the case must still go through the appeals phase, a process that typically lasts a year. One of the three panel judges who decided the case told us that she was pleased with the verdicts, but also confided that she believed the Prosecutor's Office had "overcharged" the four men who were acquitted. She also complimented the national prosecutor who had tried the case. (Note: Both the national prosecutor and the presiding judge in the case had participated in war crimes prosecution training sponsored by OPDAT. An international prosecutor also played a major role behind the scenes in the case. End Note) REACTIONS TO THE VERDICT -------------- ¶4. (U) As of today (July 31),except for SDS officials who labeled the Court's verdict &political,8 political leaders and parties have refrained from commenting publicly on the landmark case. Media outlets at the state-level and in the SARAJEVO 00001236 002 OF 002 Federation have described the verdicts as &just.8 Most media outlets in the Republika Srpska have provided factual accounts of the decision. However, Republika Srpska,s government-owned radio and television service, RTRS, called the prison sentences &draconian,8 while the Banja Luka based-daily &Glas Srpska8 claimed that the verdicts are proof that the State Court and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are biased against Serbs. The Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves, who had planned to protest the decision but changed their minds after realizing that the decision was better than expected, still expressed disappointment with it. In a public statement, they declared, &this is no justice. Those criminals that have been convicted ) their children have fathers, their wives have husbands, their mothers have sons, and we are still searching for our loved ones.8 COMMENT -------------- ¶5. (C) The landmark Kravica decision, coming just days after the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in Serbia, is yet another critical milestone in the quest for justice for Bosnia's war crimes victims. Victims and their families should find some comfort in the decision since it resulted in the first ever genocide convictions in a Bosnian court and produced the toughest war crimes-related sentences handed down by a Bosnian court. The nature of the verdicts also make it difficult for Bosniak member of the Tri-Presidency Haris Silajdzic and RS PM Milorad Dodik to exploit the case politically, which may be why both men have, thus far, refrained from commenting on it. Silajdzic cannot argue that the gravity of the crime was not acknowledged given the seven convictions for genocide, and Dodik cannot claim the outcome was biased against Serbs, since four Serbs were acquitted. The outcome of the Kravica case was a &win8 for the Court as well, which still faces an uphill battle building public confidence in its ability to ensure speedy and fair justice in war crimes cases. ENGLISH