Croatian court jails former paramilitary member over Srebrenica killings

30/12/2005

A Croatian Serb was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday for his participation in the killing of six unarmed Bosnian Muslims near Srebrenica in 1995 and for torturing Croatian prisoners in 1991.

(Radio Netherlands - 30/12/05; AP, Reuters, AFP, BBC, RFE/RL, HINA - 29/12/05; BETA - 20/12/05; Reuters, The New York Times - 13/06/05)

Slobodan Davidovic (centre), a former member of the Scorpions paramilitary unit, "actively participated in inhuman treatment, humiliation and liquidation" of six young Muslim men from Srebrenica in 1995, Zagreb District Judge Miroslav Sovanj said in his ruling. [AFP]

The Zagreb County Court sentenced an ethnic Serb to 15 years in prison on Thursday (29 December) for his involvement in war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts in the early 1990s.

Slobodan Davidovic, 52, was arrested in June, days after television stations across the former Yugoslavia broadcast a videotape showing members of a Serb paramilitary police unit, called the Scorpions, cold-bloodedly killing six young, unarmed Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica.

With their hands tied behind their backs, the captives -- two of them underage -- were taken off a truck in the village of Godinska Bara near Trnovo in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Four were shot in the back, while the other two were ordered to carry the bodies into a barn before being also killed.

The chilling footage, which was first shown at the war crimes trial against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in early June, prompted the arrests in Serbia of five other former members of the paramilitary unit, including its commander, Slobodan Medic. The Serbian authorities wanted to try Davidovic along with the other suspects, but as a Croatian citizen he could not be extradited. Therefore, the Zagreb County Court took up his case.

As the trial proceedings began in late October, Davidovic -- a former waiter and part-time construction worker from the small eastern Croatian village of Sidski Banovci, south of Vukovar -- pleaded not guilty.

Presiding Judge Miroslav Sovanj said on Thursday the footage provided clear evidence of Davidovic's participation.

"Testimonies and the video of the executions, in which Davidovic was recognised, clearly show that he and the others had taken part in killing the Muslims," the judge said. The former militiaman, he also noted, had shown no mercy or sympathy for the victims and had "actively participated in the whole operation" from the moment Medic ordered the executions.

Explaining the court's verdict, Sovanj also said there were no facts that could serve as mitigating circumstances, as Davidovic was a mature person at the time. Furthermore, after the end of the 1991-1995 conflict in Croatia and his service with the Scorpions, he returned home as if nothing had happened.

Dozens of Croatian Serbs joined the Scorpions in 1991, when the fighting in the former Yugoslav republic was at its height. The unit eventually went to fight in BiH and took part in the capture of Srebrenica and the subsequent massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in July 1995.

The 15-year prison sentence Davidovic received includes a nine-year term for the October 1991 torture of Croatian Army soldiers in a makeshift prison.

According to the Croatian news agency HINA, Davidovic is planning to appeal the verdict and will remain in custody until his sentence becomes final.