Bosnia's 'iron lady' due to be sentenced
Biljana Plavsic, once called Bosnia’s “iron lady,” was due to be sentenced for war crimes today.
The 72-year-old former wartime leader is the highest ranking Bosnian Serb to be brought before the UN tribunal in The Hague.
She has confessed to persecuting non-Serbs, expressed remorse, and urged Bosnian fugitives to surrender to international justice. But she has refused to testify against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and others.
Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison for her, saying they would have sought less if she had agreed to give evidence against Milosevic. The defence has said any more than eight years would be a virtual life sentence.
Plavsic said she was awaiting the sentence “with complete calmness”.
“This is nothing compared to what misery I have seen in my life,” she said. “This is the end of a road which I started a long time ago.”
Plavsic was accused of planning a brutal purge of Muslims and other non-Serbs from Serb-dominated areas of Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war.
The length of the sentence given to her could determine the future of the tribunal. A lengthy jail term could lead other suspects to conclude that co-operating with the court does not guarantee leniency.
Plavsic was a close associate of Radovan Karadzic, the fugitive most wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal. She is the only woman among more than 100 men indicted.
After initially pleading innocent to all charges, she changed her mind last October and pleaded guilty to one count of persecution, a crime against humanity. Prosecutors dropped seven other charges, including genocide. She was allowed to remain free pending today’s sentencing.
Plavsic shocked the world in 1992 when she publicly kissed the notorious Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, whose fighters led terror campaigns against Muslims and Croats.
Arkan nicknamed her “the Serbian empress”.
