Handan Kazancı
25 March 2016•Update: 02 April 2016
ANKARA
Turkey on Friday welcomed the sentencing of former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic to 40 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1990s Bosnian wars.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the verdict was meant to serve “the families of thousands of innocent victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and various war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the darkest pages in recent history”.
But the statement added that the verdict was “far from consoling” the survivors and victims’ families.
UN judges in The Hague tribunal on Thursday found Karadzic guilty on 10 counts out of a total of 11 charges.
He faced two counts of genocide, but while the court convicted him for his role in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, he was found not guilty of genocide in seven other Bosnian areas, including Bratunac, Foca, Kljuc, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica and Zvornik.
The ministry said: “We hope that the verdict will serve social peace and reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and will set an example to deter the commission of similar crimes in ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world.”
