Radovan Karadzic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was sentenced March 24 to 40 years in prison for genocide and other crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The former leader of the break-away Serbian Republic of Bosnia/Herzegovina was found guilty of murder, persecution, forcible transfer, terror and hostage taking during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, a conflict that's estimated to have taken more than 100,000 lives.
Delivering the verdicts, presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic had ordered detained Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica to be transferred for killing. It was part of brutal campaign against Bosnian Muslims that came to be known as “ethnic cleansing.”
In statement issued March 24, U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner noted, “with the trial chamber’s conviction, we move one step closer to closing another painful chapter in the story of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
We’ll never forget the horrors of genocide in Bosnia or the many other crimes committed on all sides of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, nor will we ever stop honoring their victims and survivors. We urge the members of the international community to cooperate with the ICTY and respect its decisions.”
