Sentences for Stanišić and Župljanin Conclude the Political, Military, and Police Criminal Enterprise of RS

After the Trial Chamber confirmed the first-instance verdict sentencing Mićo Stanišić and Stojan Župljanin to 22 years in prison each, an absolute entity of the Joint Criminal Enterprise known as Republika Srpska has been concluded, writes the Patria News Agency.

The convicted Stanišić and Župljanin were leaders of police structures. During the period of the most horrific crimes in camps and the extermination of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, Mićo Stanišić was the Minister of Police of Republika Srpska and thus a member of the RS Government. Župljanin was the head of the Security Services Regional Center (CSB).

These two men "participated in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the territory of the planned Serb state," the verdict states.

The same conclusion about the extermination of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats is found in the verdict against Radovan Karadžić. Thus, the entire political leadership of Republika Srpska has been convicted: Radovan Karadžić, President of RS, sentenced to 40 years in prison in the first instance; Momčilo Krajišnik, Speaker of the RS Assembly, to 20 years in prison; Biljana Plavšić, member of the state Presidency, went a step further and admitted to the crime of extermination, persecution, and detention in death camps. Radoslav Brđanin was the head of the Crisis Staff of the Autonomous Region of Krajina, then Vice-President of the RS Government for Production, and subsequently a minister in the RS government, sentenced to 32 years in prison.

A complete joint criminal enterprise within the political leadership of Republika Srpska has been proven.

At the same time, the military leadership of the Army of Republika Srpska was tried. VRS Commander Ratko Mladić is being tried for the crime of genocide and grave crimes against humanity. Almost all officers of the General Staff of the VRS have been convicted. VRS Lieutenant Colonels Vujadin Popović and Ljubiša Beara were found guilty of the crime of genocide in Srebrenica and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ljubiša Beara was the Chief of Security in the General Staff of the RS. The Head of the Special Police Unit, Ljubomir Borovčanin, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Mladić's assistant in the VRS General Staff, Milan Gvero, was sentenced to five years in prison. VRS General Radivoj Miletić was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Radislav Krstić, a General of the Army of RS, was found guilty of genocide, extermination, and persecution and sentenced to 46 years in prison by the Tribunal. General Zdravko Tolimir was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of genocide and died in detention. Momir Talić was indicted and tried for genocide, but died before the verdict. General Đorđe Đukić was indicted, tried, but died of lung cancer and did not live to see the verdict.

There is no relevant person from the political, military, and police leadership who has not been tried for a joint criminal enterprise. So, what will happen to Republika Srpska, whose essence of formation and existence is the crime of genocide, extermination, persecution, and detention of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats in death camps.

Republika Srpska was not created in Dayton on the foundations of international law. The international agreement at the American military base Wright-Patterson was merely a feverish attempt to establish peace. Just as the architect of Dayton, the late Richard Holbrooke, named his memoirs: "To End a War."

The trials and verdicts at the International Court have proven that Republika Srpska, in its foundations, has terrible crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, just as all its supreme political, military, and police creators have been tried and convicted of genocide and grave crimes against humanity. The question is how long something can exist that has numerous international court verdicts in all segments proving it was created as a joint criminal enterprise.