Serbian court sentences 14 ex-soldiers for 1991 war crime in Croatia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Serbia's special war crimes court on Tuesday sentenced 14 former Yugoslav Army soldiers and paramilitaries to a total of 128 years in jail for the 1991 killings of 70 Croat civilians, some of whom were ordered to walk through a minefield, Reuters reported.

In a ruling Belgrade hopes will boost its chances of joining the European Union, the court said it had been proven beyond doubt that the defendants were guilty of the killings, and of mistreating and torturing the civilian population.

In October 1991, the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army, allied with paramilitaries and local Serbs, swooped on the village of Lovas in eastern Croatia, immediately killing 22 ethnic Croats in their homes, the court said.

"They also killed another 23 people in improvised prisons ... and forced civilians to walk through a mine field, which resulted in the deaths of 22 people," it added. "Another three people were killed in isolated incidents."

Serbia and the other countries that once made up the now defunct six-republic Yugoslavia are still struggling to come to terms with the wars that tore it apart in the 1990s, plunging Europe into bloodshed.

"With this (ruling) we have sent a reconciliatory message to all the war crimes victims throughout former Yugoslavia," Bruno Vekaric, the assistant war crime prosecutor, told reporters in Belgrade.

Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, is trying to show the 27-nation bloc it is serious about prosecuting war crimes from the period in order to dispel concerns that it has dragged its feet over doing so in the past.