OneWorld.net (U.S.)

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 13 (OneWorld) - In Serbia and the Netherlands, the judges may not have any doubts that the rulings they handed down were as just and fair as possible. But those who survived the mass slaughter some 12 years ago in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica are not buying it.

In Bosnia, many survivors are expressing dismay over the two most recent court rulings that cleared the Serbian government of involvement in the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica of thousands of Muslim men and boys.

On Tuesday, a Serbian court sentenced four members of a wartime paramilitary unit, known as the "Scorpions," to 5- to 20-year prison terms, but refused to link the killers directly to the massacre, and freed a fifth defendant.

They were all accused of summarily executing six Muslims from Srebrenica in July 1995, days before the massacre.

The verdict followed a recent decision in February by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which concluded that genocide had taken place in Bosnia during the war but that Serbia had not been responsible.

Accusing the courts of being soft in sentencing those who planned and carried out the mass killings, many survivors said the rulings demonstrated nothing less than a larger pattern of impunity for war criminals who had made a systematic attempt to destroy the Muslims of eastern Bosnia.

© Advocacy ProjectBeba Hadzic, the director of Bosfam, a women's group in the Bosnian town of Tuzla that works closely with the U.S.-based nonprofit organization, Advocacy Project, said she was disappointed with Tuesday's verdict and worried about the possibility of future crimes.

"I always think, who will be next after Bosnia?" said Hadzic.

Noting that Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leaders who allegedly masterminded the massacre, still remain at large, other survivors said they were deeply concerned about the future of the region.

The case against the five "Scorpions" was based on video footage of the killing that was taken by one of the five involved in the murders. The video, released about two years ago, caused an international outcry and shock over the killings.

The footage showed four Muslim men taken into a clearing, abused, and then shot. Two older captives were told to drag the bodies into a building, and were then shot themselves.

Hadzic, who was expelled from Srebrenica at the start of the war in 1992, said the crime was clearly linked to the massacre and that she had known one of the victims, Azmir Alistahic, who was about 16 at the time he was shot dead.

"He was a young boy, and not in the army," Hadzic said. "His crime was to be a Muslim."

Azmir's sister was working at Hadzic's Bosfam center in Tuzla when the film was shown on Bosnian television without warning. She fainted when she saw her brother's murder on television.

In a statement, Hadzic also recalled how she was expelled from her home in Srebrenica by Serbian soldiers from the city of Novi Sad and driven through Serbia in a truck before returning to Bosnia. She said her brother-in-law was among those killed at Srebrenica.

© Advocacy Project / MacEnzie FradyDuring the war, according to the UN, more than 7,000 men and boys over the age of 15 were slaughtered in Srebrenica. Since then the town has been largely neglected by aid agencies, and remains physically and spiritually desolate. Many of its original residents fled to the nearby town of Tuzla where they live in extremely impoverished conditions.

On Tuesday, the UN tribunal handed over one former Bosnian Serb army officer to Finland where he will serve 20 years in jail. Momir Nikolic, 52, has been convicted of involvement in the Srebrenica massacre.

Nikolic is the 26th person to be transferred by the tribunal to another European country to serve out the remainder of his custodial sentence.

As a result of agreements signed by countries and the UN, those convicted by the UN tribunal are now serving their sentences in Austria, Germany, Norway, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, and Britain.

Nikolic pleaded guilty in May 2003 to one count of persecution on political, racial, and religious grounds -- a crime against humanity -- after prosecutors agreed to drop other charges. He also agreed to testify in other trials at the tribunal.

Originally, the trial chamber sentenced him to 27 years in jail, but later reduced the term on appeal in March last year.

A teacher by profession, Nikolic was mobilized into Bosnian Serb forces, where he eventually took charge as the assistant commander for security and intelligence in its Bratunac Brigade in 1995.

At his trial, the UN court found that Nikolic attended three meetings at which Bosnian Serb military leaders determined the fate of Muslim civilians from Srebrenica, which had been previously declared a UN safe area.

The enclave was overrun by the Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995, when the mass murders of men and boys took place while thousands of women and children were forced to leave their homes.

UN reports suggest the tribunal found that Nikolic recommended possible detention and execution, supervised deportations and separations, and later coordinated the exhumation and reburial of Muslim bodies in an attempt to destroy evidence.

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