2 Bosnian Croats Found Guilty of War Crimes

A U.N. tribunal on Monday convicted a Bosnian Croat political leader and a military commander of war crimes for ordering the systematic murder and persecution of Muslim civilians during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Prosecutors protested that the sentences--25 years and 15 years--were too light for the severity of the crimes. The men could have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Presiding Judge Richard May of Britain said attacks on villages “were characterized by a ruthlessness and savagery . . . in which no distinction was made as to the age of . . . victims: Young and old were either murdered or expelled and their houses were burned.

“The total number of dead may never be known, but it runs into hundreds, with thousands expelled,” he said.

The court convicted Mario Cerkez, 41, a Croatian military commander, of leading attacks against Muslim villages during the Bosnian war in 1993 and ’94. He received a 15-year sentence.

The tribunal said Dario Kordic, a leader of the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union and of the Croatian Defense Council, helped plan and organize a campaign to drive Muslims from an area the Bosnian Croats wanted to make part of the newly created state of Croatia. Kordic, 40, was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment.