Bosnia, July 21: Two Bosnian Serb cousins were sentenced to life and 30 years in jail on Monday for what judges of a U.N. war crimes court termed the “callous” and “vicious” murder of Muslims in Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
The pair were accused of “locking scores of Muslims in two houses and burning them alive,” the AP reports. “Yugoslav war crimes tribunal judge Patrick Robinson said burning at least 119 Muslims to death in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad ‘exemplified the worst acts of inhumanity that one person may inflict on others.’”
“The trial chamber sentences Milan Lukic to a term of imprisonment for the remainder of his life,” the judge added.
Sredoje Lukic was meanwhile sentenced “to a term of 30 years’ imprisonment,” the judge said.
The two had been accused by prosecutors of taking part in “one of the most notorious campaigns of ethnic cleansing” as members of a paramilitary group in the southeastern Bosnian town of Visegrad.
From the indictment:
In approximately mid-June 1992, Milan LUKIC, Sredoje LUKIC, Mitar VASILJEVIC and others forced approximately 65 Bosnian Muslim women, children and old men, most of whom were from the village of Koritnik, into one room in the house of Adem Omeragic located on Pioneer Street in the Visegrad neighbourhood of Nova Mahala.
….
Milan LUKIC, Sredoje LUKIC and Mitar VASILJEVIC locked and barricaded the people in the house to prevent their escape. Later, as Sredoje LUKIC and Mitar VASILJEVIC stood behind him, Milan LUKIC opened the door, placed an incendiary device on the floor and lit the fuse. Within seconds, the entire house was engulfed in flames and it continued to burn for the next hour.
Some people tried to jump out the windows, but Milan LUKIC and Sredoje LUKIC stood outside shooting at them while Mitar VASILJEVIC shined a light on the victims.
The cries and screams of the people in the house could be heard for approximately two hours after the fire began. All but six of the people locked in the house were killed. The victims either died in the fire or were shot trying to escape. Among the victims were several young children and babies, and 46 members of one family. The names of some of the victims are listed in Annex A….
–Agencies