Foreign media on the verdict against Stanišić and Simatović: Proof that Serbia was an aggressor in BiH and Croatia

(Patria) - Foreign media and agencies also wrote about yesterday's verdict in The Hague against former officials of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanišić and Frenki Simatović. BBC writes that "Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović were convicted for training death squads accused of ethnic cleansing during the breakup of Yugoslavia" and that the two were "key allies" of President Slobodan Milošević.

"They are also held responsible for involvement in crimes across Bosnia and in one city in Croatia as members of a joint criminal enterprise to eliminate non-Serbs from the country during the Balkan wars," they further state.

The BBC also quotes Kada Hotić, who lost many family members in the Srebrenica genocide.

"I look at this beautiful blue sky and this ICTY building that managed to bring us partial justice. I lost my sons, two children, brothers, I cannot live in my Srebrenica, I only live to fight for justice. I want people to live in the country and not to kill each other, we are all just people," she said.

Subašić: This is also a message for mothers in Ukraine and Syria

Reuters also writes about the verdict against Serbian intelligence officials.

The agency states that "judges ruled that Jovica Stanišić, former head of Serbia's State Security Service, and his subordinate Franko Frenki Simatović are responsible for crimes in several parts of Bosnia and Croatia for their role in aiding, financing, and training Serb militias during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s."

"Prosecutors claimed that these men were the direct link between Milošević's government in Serbia and the crimes committed during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, in which more than 100,000 people died and a million were displaced," Reuters reports.

Reuters also quotes another victim of the Srebrenica genocide, Munira Subašić.

"This is also a message for mothers in Ukraine, for mothers in Syria to fight for justice, and they will have results," Munira Subašić, president of the Association of Mothers of Srebrenica, told reporters.

Intent to remove non-Serbs

AP quotes presiding judge Graciela Gatti Santana, who said that the convicted duo "shared the intent to promote a joint criminal purpose to forcibly and permanently remove most non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina through the commission of the crimes for which they are charged."

The appellate judgment concludes the longest-running war crimes prosecution dating back to the Balkan wars of the early 1990s, AP reports.

"Stanišić, former head of the Serbian State Security Service, and Simatović, a senior intelligence operative of that service, are the only Serbian officials convicted by a UN court for involvement in crimes in Bosnia," the agency further states.

AP also quoted victims of crimes in BiH.

"Murat Tahirović, leader of an association of victims of war and genocide in northern Bosnia, said he had waited 30 years for a verdict linking Belgrade to crimes in his country," AP writes, continuing with Tahirović's statement that "the verdict also proved that Serbia committed aggression not only against Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also against Croatia."

Finally, AP also reports the view of Jelena Sesar from Amnesty International, who says that the verdict "leaves no doubt about the involvement of the Serbian police and security services in war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, something that Serbian authorities deny to this day."