Crimes against humanity apparently not as bad as crimes against individuals

IntlSet

Bonjour!
Jan 29, 2006
12,369
63
In my opinion, this man should be put before a firing squad for his crimes. He will be able to enjoy freedom as an old man. Funny that ordering the killing of hundreds doesn't result in as harsh a sentence as the killing of one. As Stalin once said: "One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic."

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Ex-Rebel Serb Leader Gets 35 Years for War Crimes


martic_150.jpg
Michel Porro

Former Bosnian Serb political leader Milan Martic arrives for his judgement hearing at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands on June 12, 2007. Getty Images





NPR.org, June 12, 2007 · The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on Tuesday convicted Milan Martic, a wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serb militia, of murder and torture in connection with a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in the 1990s. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Martic, 52, stood still and showed no emotion as the verdict was read out at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

The presiding judge said Martic was responsibile for hundreds of murders from 1991, when Serbs in the Krajina region of southern Croatia rebelled and set up a breakaway ministate until 1995, when Croatian forces recaptured the area.

Martic was also convicted of ordering two days of indiscriminate shelling of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, in May 1995, that killed at least seven civilians and wounded more than 200.

Most of the crimes were "committed against elderly people, persons held in detention and civilians. The special vulnerability of these victims adds to the gravity of the crimes," said presiding judge Bakone Moloto.

The three-judge U.N. panel said Martic was deeply involved in a criminal plot with other Serb leaders including Slobodan Milosevic, Gen. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to carve out an ethnically pure "greater Serbia" as Yugoslavia crumbled that would include about one third of Croatia.
"It is clear that Milan Martic endorsed the goal of creating a unified Serb state," said Moloto.

Martic was indicted in July 1995, just two months after ordering the shelling of Zagreb. The indiscriminate two-day attack using rockets loaded with cluster bombs hit buildings, including a school, a children's hospital and the Croatian national theater, said Moloto.

In media interviews, Martic admitted ordering the shelling to retaliate against Croatian attacks on Serbs and warn against further attacks, Moloto said.
Describing attacks on Croat villages by Martic's forces, Moloto said that after the initial military push by Serb forces subsided, "acts of killing and violence were committed against the civilian non-Serb population who did not manage to flee. Houses, churches and property were destroyed and widespread looting was carried out."

In the villages of Hrvatska Dubica and Cerovljani in October 1991, Croats were forced from their homes, beaten and used as human shields by Serbs. When they fled, Serbs moved into their homes, Moloto said.

On Oct. 20, 1991, more than 40 villagers were detained at a local fire station by Croatian Serb forces. Eleven were released or managed to escape, but the next day the remaining prisoners were taken to the banks of a nearby river and killed, Moloto said. Their bodies were dumped in several graves, including a mass grave judges visited during the trial.

Martic turned himself into the U.N. court in May 2002 and pleaded not guilty to all 19 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
From The Associated Press