Leading Bosnian Serb war criminal released from Swedish prison
The sole Bosnian Serb political leader to plead guilty to war crimes in the 1992-95 conflict walked free from a Swedish prison today after serving six years in jail for crimes against humanity.
Biljana Plavsic, a former president of the Serbian half of Bosnia and close colleague ofRadovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader whose trial has just got under way at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, flew from Sweden to Belgrade.
Wearing a fur coat and blowing kisses to the crowds gathered to greet her, Plavsic arrived in the Serbian capital today, accompanied by the Bosnian Serb prime minister, Milorad Dodik.
Plavsic, an extreme Serbian nationalist who was notoriously photographed embracing the late warlord Arkan alongside dead Bosnian Muslims at the beginning of the war, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in The Hague andreceived an 11-year sentence in 2003.
She had faced eight charges, including two of genocide. All the most serious charges against her were dropped in return for her admission of remorse and guilty plea. A biologist and former Sarajevo University professor, Plavsic was one of the original troika of hardline Bosnian Serb leaders around Karadzic at the start of the Yugoslav wars in 1991.
Plavsic is a controversial figure. Many Bosnian Muslims are convinced her declarations of remorse were insincere and aimed purely at gaining a light sentence.
However, Bosnian Muslim victims in The Hague to witness the beginning of the Karadzic trial were generous towards Plavsic, who is 79.
"She's served her sentence and she's at the end of her life. I think it's OK she's been released," said Nezira Sulejmanovic, fromSrebrenica whose two sons and daughter were killed by Serbian forces in the war. "She's just waiting for the end of her life. Let her be."
Plavsic will enjoy police protection in Belgrade.
She was one of the few indictees to surrender to the special UN court in The Hague. In return for her guilty plea, she faced only one charge of crimes against humanity and said she was sorry for the Bosnian Serb persecution of Bosnia's Muslims. In 2005, however, she admitted she had lied in her statement of remorse.