Former Bosnia Serb Woman Leader Pleads Guilty before ICTY

On October 2, 2002, Biljana Plavsic, the Bosnian Serb vice president during the 1992-5 Yugoslav conflict, plead guilty of crimes against humanity, becoming the first high official to plead guilty. During the Yugoslav conflict, Mrs. Plavsic was deputy to Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who is still one of the individuals whose arrest the ICTY most prioritized. In 1996, Mrs. Plavsic succeeded Karadzic as president. During the conflict Mrs. Plavsic was a key member of the crisis committee, which served as a military and civilian government overseeing the murder, rape and expulsion of large numbers of Muslims and Croats from eastern and central Bosnia. Although seven other defendants have pleaded guilty before the ICTY, Mrs. Plavsic is the first high-level official to do so. In addition, she is the only woman publicly accused by the ICTY.