Plavsic returns to Serbia
After spending nearly a decade behind bars, the former president was released for good behaviour.
(AFP, AP, Reuters, DPA, AKI, BBC, CNN, Guardian, Deutsche Welle, Euronews, Javno.hr, Beta, B92, Fena – 27/10/09)
Former Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic is accompanied to a plane at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. [AFP]
Former Republika Srpska (RS) President Biljana Plavsic arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday (October 27th) following her early release from a prison in Sweden, where she had been serving an 11-year sentence for war crimes.
Plavsic, 79, flew into the Serbian capital on a RS government plane that picked her up from Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. A car waiting on the runway then took the former Bosnian Serb leader, once dubbed the “Iron Lady” of the Balkans, straight to an apartment in Belgrade, owned by her family. Plavsic, who has a dual Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbian citizenship, was accompanied home by RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik.
“I’m happy to be here … but, after nine years in prison, I don’t know what will happen,” she told reporters briefly as she entered her apartment building, adding that she needed time to rest, and promised to speak to the press “soon”.
Plavsic, who will enjoy police protection in Belgrade, said she wants to spend time with her brother’s family, and is reportedly planning to steer clear of politics.
“I do not believe she would return to the political scene,” the AFP quoted her sister-in-law, Vasilija Plavsic, as telling Belgrade-based B92 Radio earlier Tuesday. “She wants to spend her late years in peace and quiet.”
Plavsic was one of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic’s two deputies during the 1992-1995 conflict in BiH, which left about 100,000 people dead and forced more than 2 million others to flee their homes. She replaced him as RS president in 1996, when her wartime mentor left public life under pressure from the West. A former biology professor, Plavsic served in that post until 1998.
She surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in January 2001 to face charges of genocide, extermination, murder, persecution, deportation and inhumane acts. Striking a deal with prosecutors in 2002, Plavsic agreed to plead guilty to one count of persecution against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. In return, all other charges were dropped.
The highest ranking official of the former Yugoslavia to have admitted responsibility for atrocities committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, Plavsic was convicted of crimes against humanity in February 2003 and sentenced to 11 years in prison. About four months later, she was transferred to the Hinseberg facility for women, about 200km west of Stockholm. She was the only woman among the 161 people indicted by the ICTY.
Citing her good behaviour and “substantial evidence of rehabilitation”, the ICTY decided last month that she should be set free. Under Swedish law, Plavsic was eligible for release after serving two-thirds of her prison term.
The Hague tribunal’s ruling angered many Bosniaks and Croats in BiH, while most Bosnian Serbs welcomed it.
To protest Plavsic’s release Tuesday, Zeljko Komsic, the current chairman of BiH’s tripartite presidency, cancelled his official visit to Sweden next week.
“The Swedish government released Plavsic because it wanted to and not because it had to,” Komsic, an ethnic Croat, said in a statement. He called the move “particularly unacceptable and embarrassing”.
Source: SETimes.com
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