Sarajevo: Former Bosnian military commander Naser Oric, hailed by supporters as the heroic “defender of Srebrenica”, was acquitted on Friday by a local court of war crimes during the country’s 1990s conflict.
“Naser Oric and his fellow fighter Sabahudin Muhic are acquitted of charges of having committed during the war... crimes against prisoners,” judge Tihomir Lukes said.
The two men were tried for the killing of three Serb prisoners in the Srebrenica area at the start of the 1992-95 war, which pitted the country’s Serb, and Croat communities against each other. The acquittal means that the case is closed.
Awaiting the verdict, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Sarajevo court carrying banners that read: “Heroes, not criminals!”
Oric, 51, is celebrated by fellow Bosnian Muslims — known as Bosniaks — for commanding the defence of Srebrenica, where some 8,000 men and boys were slaughtered in a 1995 massacre that was the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.
Bosnian military figures have already been tried and condemned in Bosnia for crimes committed during the inter-ethnic conflict, but none of them had Oric’s aura or importance.
“The proceedings against Oric are very sensitive,” Erna Mackic, a journalist specialised in war crimes cases, warned ahead of the verdict.
“Whatever the judgement is, it will be strongly criticised by one of the parties that will be unhappy,” she said.
For years, perpetrators in the most serious cases were tried by the Hague-based UN tribunal set up after the 1990s conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Those judges overwhelmingly convicted Serbs in the Bosnian war: 52 in total, compared to 17 Croats and six Bosnian Muslims, according to a count by local media.
But with the UN tribunal officially wound up in December 2017, local courts have been left to carry on the work.
In 2008, Oric was acquitted on appeal by the UN war crimes court on charges of not doing enough to protect Serb prisoners of war.
Some see the condemnation of Oric as essential for reconciliation in Bosnia.
But for mother Kada Hotic, from an association of Srebrenica women, such a verdict would be a “shame and insult for the victims.” — AFP
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