The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Bosnia: Three Acquitted on War Crimes Charges
| 09 February 2010 |
The court confirmed the first instance verdict which found Blagojevic guilty of having shot at the Vuk Karadzic school building in Bratunac in July 1995 using an anti-aircraft gun. At the time, male residents of Srebrenica and the surrounding villages were being detained in the building.
"The Chamber determined that Blagojevic shot at the school building window by which a detainee was standing. The indictment did not specify whether the person was killed. We therefore characterized the crime as 'other inhumane acts committed with an intention of causing bodily injuries'," the first instance verdict, handed down in November 2008, stated.
The Appellate Chamber confirmed the verdict, rejecting as groundless the appeals filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mladen Blagojevic's defence counsel.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged Bozic, Blagojevic, Zivanovic and Zaric, as members of the Military Police Squad with the Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated in persecution and murder and in guarding buildings in which Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from Srebrenica were detained after the fall of the UN protected zone.
The indictment charged them with participation in a joint criminal enterprise and crimes against humanity.
"The Appellate Chamber determined that the Trial Chamber correctly assessed the evidence and determined Blagojevic's criminal responsibility for inhumane acts and sentenced him to seven years in prison. The Trial Chamber correctly determined that, on the basis of presented evidence, the State Prosecution had not managed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, the criminal responsibility of Bozic, Zivanovic and Zaric," the state court's announcement says.
The announcement also states that the Appellate Chamber considers that the crimes were undoubtedly committed, but, in order for the indictees to be considered responsible for those crimes, "the Prosecution must have proved it, beyond reasonable doubt, but it has not done that in this concrete case".
More then 8,000 boys and man were killed over a period of seven days in July 1995 in Srebrenica. Radovan Karadzic, who is currently on trial at the Hague, and Ratko Mladic, who is still at large, have been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes committed in this city and throughout Bosnia during the war.
