The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 to prosecute the mass killings and serious violations of international law that were committed during the Bosnian War. Soon after its establishment, the court indicted the President of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, and the Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Ratko Mladić, for genocide in Srebrenica.
Karadžić and Mladić were arrested thirteen and sixteen years later respectively, after hiding for over a decade in Serbia and the RS. The initial judgement of Karadžić found him guilty of genocide in Srebrenica and sentenced him to 40 years of imprisonment, while the trial of Mladić is still ongoing.
In 2001, the ICTY convicted General Radislav Krstić of genocide and sentenced him to 46 years imprisonment (a sentence which was reduced to 35 years imprisonment in 2005). This was the first judgement by the Hague Tribunal for genocide.
In June 2010, former RS Army officers Vujadin Popović and Ljubiša Beara were sentenced to life-imprisonment for the genocide of Bosniaks in Srebrenica, in addition to the sentencing of five more RS army and police personnel: Drago Nikolić (35 years of imprisonment), Ljubomir Borovčanin (17 years imprisonment), Vinko Pandurević (13 years imprisonment), Radivoje Miletić (18 years imprisonment), and Milan Gvero (5 years imprisonment).
In December 2012 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted General Zdravko Tolimir, ex assistant to Ratko Mladić and war Chief of Intelligence Service of the RS Army Supreme Command finding him guilty of genocide and sentencing him to life-imprisonment.
For crimes in Srebrenica, the ICTY also convicted former RS Army officers Momir Nikolić to 20 years of imprisonment, Vidoje Blagojević (15 years imprisonment), Dragan Obrenović (17 years imprisonment), and Dragan Jokić (9 years imprisonment). The Bosnia and Herzegovina Court continued with the prosecution of their subordinates, the direct executors of crimes.
In the judgement of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s action against then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) twelve years after the crimes in Srebrenica the ICJ also found that, with support of Republic of Serbia, “Bosnian Serbs planned and executed the genocide in Srebrenica”.
