Ex-Leader of Bosnia Serbs Gets 11 Years

Biljana Plavsic, the former Bosnian Serb president who expressed remorse for the horrors committed against non-Serbs during Bosnia-Herzegovina’s war, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for promoting a campaign of murder, rape and torture.

Plavsic, 72 -- once known as Bosnia’s “iron lady” -- is the highest-ranking politician from the former Yugoslav federation to be sentenced by the court. More than 200,000 people are believed to have died in Bosnia.

Reading a summary of the ruling, Judge Richard May said the crimes “did not happen to a nameless group but to individual men, women and children who were mistreated, raped, tortured and killed.” Plavsic, he said, embraced and promoted the “ethnic cleansing,” even though she was not among those who conceived and planned it.

But the court also took into account Plasvic’s plea of guilty to one count of persecution, made as part of a bargain with prosecutors, who dropped seven other charges, including genocide. The panel also recognized her remorse and help in implementing a peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 war.

Plavsic has 30 days to appeal the sentence, which is to be served in a European country not yet named.