Warlord 'Batko' Jailed For Sarajevo Killings

A warlord has been jailed for 45 years for the murder, rape and torture of non-Serb civilians in Sarajevo in the Bosnian war.

Veselin Vlahovic, a Montenegrin nicknamed Batko, received the longest sentence handed down so far by the Bosnian war crimes court.

He was found guilty of the murders of 31 people, rapes of at least 13 women and torture and robbery of dozens of civilians in Grbavica and Vraca, Serb-occupied areas of Sarajevo, in 1992, said presiding judge Zoran Bozic.

Vlahovic, 44, was known by his victims as the Monster of Grbavica and Master of Life and Death. The judge said he carried out "horrid, cruel and manifold criminal acts".

Vlahovic showed no emotion during his sentencing

Prosecutors compiled a 66-count indictment against Vlahovic, the most extensive ever for crimes committed in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The 45-year sentence is the maximum that can be given for such crimes.

The judge said Vlahovic, a member of paramilitary group White Angels, which was allied to the Bosnian Serb army, often demanded ransoms of money or gold for his captives.

"Victims who could not pay for their lives would be typically taken to a recognisable location on Trebevic hill and shot in the head," he said.

"In June 1992, he forced 13 members of the Pecar family out of their home and ordered three male relatives to run across a front line street planted with mines."

Vlahovic then ordered his soldiers to open fire knowing the act would provoke a return of fire from the combat lines. One woman died and three, including a girl, were wounded and left on the street.

"It was a typical pattern (of his) behaviour. Those who had nothing to offer in turn for their lives were typically killed by a shot in the forehead, mouth or temporal bone, according to forensic accounts," said Judge Bozic.

The judge also described how Vlahovic raped a woman who was seven months pregnant in front of her young daughter in their Grbavica apartment, and in another incident raped a woman and then forced her to watch him rape her mother.

Vlahovic, dressed in a light blue shirt, was emotionless throughout the proceedings, even when the verdict drew loud applause from members of victims' associations in the packed courtroom.

Tiny Montenegro, now independent, was still in union with Serbia during the Balkan wars and many Montenegrins sympathised with the Serb cause against Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Kosovo Albanians.

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