Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal (XIA)

On March 3, 2000, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Tihomir Blaskic, 39 and a Croatian general accused of overseeing the killings of hundreds of civilians during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, to 45 years in prison, the toughest penalty yet during the ICTY’s existence. Blaskic was convicted of 19 of 20 counts for crimes against humanity, war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. The crimes for which he was convicted included overseeing forced relocations and destruction of property belonging to Muslims. According to French Judge Claude Jorda, writing for the Tribunal, “(t)he acts of war carried out with disregard for international humanitarian law and in hatred of other people, the villages reduced to rubble, the houses and stables set on fire and destroyed, the people forced to abandon their homes, the lost and broken lives are unacceptable”…[more]