ZAGREB, March 20, 2019 - The final verdict against Radovan Karadžić cannot bring back to life the tens of thousands of victims or relieve the pain of their families but it must serve as a lasting warning about the fatal effects of the Great Serbia policy, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Wednesday.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadžić was sentenced earlier in the day to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals increased Karadzic's initial sentence of 40 years' imprisonment to life.

"Today's final verdict is a judgement against one of the main ideologists and executors of the Great Serbia policy, which did not refrain from genocide and other gravest types of international crime against Croats and Bosniaks, with the aim of creating a 'Great Serbia'," the president said in a press release.

"The verdict cannot bring back to life the tens of thousands of victims nor relieve the pain of their families and survivors, however, it must serve as a lasting warning about the fatality of that policy," Grabar-Kitarović said.

The Croatian non-governmental organisation Documenta - Centre for Dealing with the Past on Wednesday welcomed the ruling by the Appeals Chamber of the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) sentencing Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadžić to life imprisonment.

"Our view is that the genocidal intent to annihilate Muslims and Croats existed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, including in Sarajevo and the six municipalities mentioned in the indictment, the allegation which the Appeals Chamber did not uphold," Documenta said in a statement.

It expressed concern about undermined trust in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "We are particularly concerned about the consequences of a recently adopted declaration at the eighth session of the Croatian National Assembly (in Bosnia and Herzegovina) which disputes the Tribunal's judgment in the 'Prlić and others' case and the rejection of the Srebrenica War Crimes Commission's report by the government and parliament of Republika Srpska," Documenta said.

Representatives of associations bringing together victims of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and families of people gone missing or killed in the war welcomed with a round of loud applause the verdict of the Appeals Chamber of the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) which on Wednesday sentenced wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić to life imprisonment, confirming his responsibility for the gravest war crimes, including genocide.

"Sometimes justice seems not to exist but in this case it has been served," Bakira Hasečić, leader of the non-governmental organisation "Women War Victims", who followed the announcement of the verdict from the court gallery, told Hina.

Hasečić and members of other associations, who arrived in The Hague from Bosnia and Herzegovina to attend the announcement of the verdict, said that they were satisfied that the court had delivered the harshest sentence.

"Everything went well, he got what he deserves," said Jasmin Mešković, leader of an association of former prison camp inmates.

Mešković said that the verdict was good for legal practice as well as for the restoration of trust between people.

Fikret Grabovica, who leads an association of parents whose children were killed during the siege of Sarajevo, told Hina that he was satisfied with the verdict, notably because it was upheld in the part that refers to charges of genocide as well as a joint criminal enterprise in the case of Sarajevo's siege.

"I represent the parents of 1,600 children killed in Sarajevo and to us it is important that the court has confirmed that he issued orders to terrorise and shell the city's residents," said Grabovica.

He said that he hoped the verdict would help adopt a law that would punish the denial of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

More news about war crimes can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 23, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković met with the MICT war crimes tribunal (International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals), Judge Theodor Meron, in Zagreb on Thursday and informed him that Croatia is continuing to try war crimes, the government said in a press release.

The Mechanism succeeded the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was operational from 1993 to the end of 2017 and conducted trials for the gravest war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s wars.

Judge Meron will remain at the helm of the Mechanism until 18 January 2019 when he will be replaced by Maltese Judge Carmel Agius, the last ICTY president.

Plenković underscored that Croatia was continuing with its investigations and trials of war crimes committed in Croatia since 1991, the press release said.

The two officials underlined the need for cooperation with neighbouring countries with the aim of trying all war crimes.

Plenković and Meron discussed an initiative to establish information centres in the region to provide access to the public data and archives of the ICTY and the Mechanism, the press release said.

For more on the ICTY activities and Croatia's relationship with the international tribunal, click here.

ZAGREB, November 2, 2018 - An investigation into the suicide of Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak in a courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague last year has not shown when and how he had obtained the potassium cyanide which he drank during the sentencing hearing, the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office said on Friday.

"The investigation of Mr Slobodan Praljak's death has been completed. The defendant Praljak committed suicide last year in the court room of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after the court had passed its sentence against him. The investigation has not shown in what way and at what point in time Mr Praljak had obtained the potassium cyanide he used. No criminal offences were established," the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement on its website.

"On Wednesday, 29 November 2017, the defendant Slobodan Praljak was present when the ICTY passed its sentence against him. After having listened to the verdict, Praljak took the floor and subsequently took a sip from a bottle. Shortly afterwards, he became unwell and died at the Westeinde hospital after more than two hours. The ICTY asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office that same day to investigate the non-natural death," it added.

The Dutch authorities said that possession of cyanide is not punishable under Dutch law. An examination of camera footage found nothing suspicious; the footage did not show him carrying or being handed over a bottle or a similar item.

"After Praljak's death, a farewell letter was found, in which he had written to his family that he had already decided to put an end to his life a long time ago, should he be found guilty.

"It can't be excluded that Praljak already had the poison in his possession for a very long time. Potassium cyanide can be stored in its dry form and suicide only requires a very small quantity. In this context, it isn't strange that the importation or storage of the substance wasn't noticed," the statement said.

If you want to read more about Croatia's relations with the ICTY, click here.

ZAGREB, October 9, 2018 - The countries of the former Yugoslavia have been backsliding on war crimes prosecution in the last few years, Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, the successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, said during a visit to Zagreb on Tuesday, warning that the public sphere was dominated by the glorification of war criminals and denial of war crimes.

ZAGREB, February 24, 2018 - The lessons drawn from the work of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should be fair and efficient prosecution of perpetrators of serious crimes in armed conflicts and well as deterrence against possible war crimes, academician Davorin Rudolf said at a conference which the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) held in Zagreb on Friday.

A rather strange assessment from a court whose defendant killed himself in the courtroom.

''It isn't clear to me why there are dilemmas about our statements on the verdict,'' said Andrej Plenković at today’s government session.

The Croatian Prime Minister claims there was no change in government’s position on the recent war crimes verdict.

The European Commission comments on recent war crimes verdict.

A shocking turn of events today in the Hague.