Two Bosnian Serb cousins who burned alive 119 Muslims to death in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad had been been found guilty by UN war crimes court.
Milan Lukic was sentenced to life in prison and Sredoje Lukic to 30 years.
Milan Lukic was sentenced to life in prison and Sredoje Lukic to 30 years.
- Judge Patrick Robinson said Milan Lukic was the ringleader in both incidents, helping herd victims into the houses, setting the fires and shooting those who tried to flee the flames.
- The judgment said his cousin Sredoje Lukic aided and abetted in one of the blazes. Witnesses “vividly remembered the terrible screams of the people in the house,” Robinson said, adding that Milan Lukic used the butt of his rifle to herd people into the house, and said, “come on, let’s get as many people inside as possible.”
- Milan Lukic shook his head but looked unmoved as Robinson pronounced sentence. Sredoje Lukic leaned back in his chair, his face blank.
- Even Robinson, a veteran judge at the tribunal that has been prosecuting Balkan war crimes for 15 years, sounded stunned by the Visegrad atrocities.
- “The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,” he said. “In the all-too-long, sad and wretched history of man’s inhumanity to man, the Pionirska Street and Bikavac fires must rank high,” the judge added.
- Milan Lukic also was convicted of murdering 12 other Muslims, shooting them in the back on the banks of the Drina River, which runs through Visegrad, so the current would sweep away their bodies. One of the victims was murdered in front of his wife and child.
- Robinson said Milan Lukic “ignored the victims pleas for their lives,” as he and other Serb paramilitaries executed them with a single shot in the back before firing into the bodies of any men they believed were still alive.
- Milan Lukic led a paramilitary group known as both the “White Eagles” and the “Avengers,” which terrorized Muslims in Visegrad. His cousin Sredoje was a local policeman and a member of the group. Both men were also convicted of cruelty for visiting a detention center to savagely beat Muslim inmates.
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