The Bosnian war crimes court in Sarajevo sentenced seven Bosnian Serbs to prison terms ranging from 38 to 42 years today for taking part in the mass killing of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995.
The two-year-long trial ended a week after Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade.
"They killed several hundred Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from Srebrenica," said judge Hilmo Vucinic.
He said it was impossible to determine the exact number killed by the group in only one day, July 13, 1995. More than 1,000 Bosnian Muslims had been kept in a warehouse in the village of Kravice.
Some of the killers fired machine guns at prisoners and one threw hand grenades at them. Others guarded the warehouse to prevent prisoners from escaping through windows.
The sentence was the first by a Bosnian court for genocide in Srebrenica, a UN "safe haven" during the 1992-95 war.
On July 11, 1995, the enclave was taken over by Bosnian Serb troops commanded by Karadzic's military chief, General Ratko Mladic.
They bussed some 25,000 women and children to territory held by the Bosnian Muslim army. Over the following week, they hunted down and killed 8,000 out of 15,000 men who tried to escape through the woods.
Karadzic and Mladic have been indicted for the massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since the second World War, and over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo. Mladic is still at large and believed to be hiding in Serbia.
Meanwhile hardline nationalists are gathering in Belgrade this afternoon to show their support for Karadzic. They regard him as a hero and defender of the Serb nation.
They have put up posters with his image around the Serbian capital and say they expect tens of thousands to demonstrate peacefully in an "all-Serb" afternoon rally. Thousands of riot police are on stand-by.
"This rally will be a symbol of resistance, a symbol of the strength of those who love freedom more than anything," said Aleksandar Vucic of the nationalist Radical Party, one of the strongest parties in Serbia.
"We'll continue resisting dictatorship in Serbia, we'll continue raising the question of whose paramilitary forces arrested Radovan Karadzic, how and why."
Serbian authorities and Karadzic are currently engaged in a cat-and-mouse game over his extradition.
Sources say the government is ready to approve his extradition, but the timing of the actual transfer partly depends on an appeal filed by Karadzic's lawyer last week.
Serbian officials say it is a gesture with no chance of success, but it nevertheless frustrates an extradition process burdened by unclear deadlines and tussles over legal detail.
Reuters