THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 29 (UPI) -- A tribunal convicted and imposed lengthy prison terms on six Bosnian Croat wartime leaders for crimes against humanity during the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
All six were found guilty of taking part in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at removing the Muslim population from territories where Bosnian Croat leadership, along with the leadership of Croatia, wanted to establish Croat domination, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, sitting in The Hague, Netherlands, said Wednesday in a release.
The panel said Herceg-Bosna's armed forces committed murders, rapes and deportations.
The tribunal concluded that "in the majority of cases, these crimes were not committed in a random manner by a few undisciplined soldiers. On the contrary, they were the result of a plan put together by the [joint criminal enterprise] members to remove the Muslim population of Herceg-Bosna."
Four of the accused were found guilty of 22 counts in the indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity -- Jadranko Prlic, former president of the Croatian Defense Council and later leader of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna's government, was sentenced to 25 years in prison; Bruno Stojic, former head of the Croatian Defense Council, received a 20-year prison sentence; Milivoj Petkovic, head of the Croatian Defense Council's main staff and later deputy commander of the council's forces , 20 years; and Valentin Coric, chief of the military police administration and later was the interior minister, 16 years.
Coric also was found guilty of command responsibility for crimes committed in Prozor in October 1992.
Two defendants were acquitted of some of the charges, the tribunal said in the release. Slobodan Praljak, a former Croatian assistant defense minister and later commander of the main staff of the Croatian Defense Council, was acquitted on two counts but convicted of 20 counts and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Berislav Pusic, former president of the Croatian Defense Council commission in charge of prisoner exchanges and detention facilities, was acquitted of four counts and convicted of 18 counts and drew a 10-year prison term.
The tribunal also established that the Croatian Defense Council destroyed the Old Bridge in Mostar on Nov. 8, 1993, and its destruction "constituted disproportionate damage for the Muslim civilian population of Mostar" and committed atrocities against Muslims when they were being evicted from the Mostar area.
The trial began April 26, 2006, and closing arguments were conducted between Feb. 7 and March 2, 2011.
