SDA REACTION: Final verdict for Serbian DB chiefs confirmed double aggression on BiH

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - SDA welcomes the final verdict that the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts handed down to former head of the Serbian State Security Service (DB) Jovica Stanišić and former commander of the DB's Special Operations Unit, Franko Simatović.

"We consider it particularly significant that the final verdict for Stanišić and Simatović established that they were part of a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) led by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, whose goal was to ethnically cleanse part of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina of non-Serb population through murder, deportation, and persecution.

This verdict, as well as the earlier verdict in the case of Jadranko Prlić and others, which established the existence of a JCE led by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, whose goal was an ethnically pure territory of the so-called 'Herceg-Bosna', will forever be recorded in history as verdicts by which a United Nations court defines the character of the war in BiH and confirms that it was a double aggression," the Party of Democratic Action stated.

The SDA also highlights that the Serbian DB chiefs, in addition to crimes in Bosanski Šamac, were found guilty of crimes committed in 1992 in Bijeljina, Zvornik, Doboj, and Sanski Most, and for crimes committed in 1995 in Trnovo and Sanski Most.

"Given the scale of the war crimes committed, we believe that the sentence of 15 years each is too lenient and represents only partial satisfaction for the victims' families. Verdicts of international courts and sentences for perpetrators of crimes are a warning to ill-intentioned current political factors in the neighborhood and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also a warning to all future generations. Verdicts of UN courts, the acknowledgment of truth and established facts, should also be the basis on which future relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as relations with neighboring countries, will be built," the SDA concluded.