Ex-Serb soldier gets 13 years for war crimes

BELGRADE, Serbia

A Bosnia and Herzegovina court on Monday sentenced a former Serb soldier to 13 years in prison for crimes against Bosniak civilians during the 1990s Bosnian War.

Sretko Pavic was convicted of crimes against humanity.

A court in the capital Sarajevo found Pavic guilty of playing an active role in systematic attacks by Serb soldiers and police on non-Serbs in Prijedor, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.

According to the statement, Pavic was also involved in the abandonment and murder of the Bosniak population in Prijedor.


- What happened in Prijedor?

In March 1992, when the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina had just begun, 1,775 Serbs from 13 police stations in Prijedor were armed in about a month.

Serbian troops seized the city of Prijedor on the night of April 29, when the majority of the population was then Bosniak. Serb troops with heavy weapons attacked villages around Prijedor on May 23.

During the attack and the massacre in and around Prijedor, 3,176 civilians died, including over 100 children.

About 30,000 civilians from Prijedor were also taken to concentration camps in Omarska, Keraterm, Kozarac, Trnopolje and Manjaca. Tens of thousands were deported from their own lands.