Hague court sentences Serb officer

Admitting to his role in the murder of more than 7000 Muslim men and boys, Dragan Obrenovic received a sentence of 17 years imprisonment on Wednesday.
   
In a plea agreement made in May, Obrenovic became the second commander to come clean about his role in Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War.
   
Presiding judge Liu Daqun found the former army officer guilty of persecution on political, racial and religious grounds. 
   
However, five other counts – including extermination and murder – were dismissed against the man who was at one time chief of staff of the Bosnian Army’s Zvornik Brigade.
   
More trials to come

Last Friday, General Stanislav Galic was condemned to 20 years

Another Serb officer, Momir Nikolic, was jailed for 27 years this month for his role in the slaughter of Muslims after forces under his command overran the Srebrenica enclave towards the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
   
Obrenovic and Nikolic are not the first to be sentenced for their role in Srebrenica by the court, nor are they likely to be the last.
   
Senior Bosnian Serb commander Radislav Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in jail for genocide at Srebrenica by the tribunal in a landmark verdict in 2001.
   
But the tribunal’s two most wanted men, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, still remain at large.

Both men are also accused of responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre as well as the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.