THE HAGUE – In a stunning reversal, U.N. appeals judges Thursday acquitted the former chief of the Yugoslav National Army of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebel Serbs, including the Srebrenica massacre, by providing them with military aid during the Balkan wars.
Gen. Momcilo Perisic, a former close ally of the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milo- sevic, in 2011 was sentenced to 27 years in jail after being convicted of crimes including murder, inhumane acts and persecution. The judges ordered his immediate release.
The judgment is a rare victory for Serbia at the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, where most of the convicted suspects have been rebel Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia. It also supported Belgrade’s often-stated assertion that it did not deliberately assist in Bosnian Serb atrocities and underscores how hard it is for international courts to prosecute senior officials seen as pulling the strings but not acting directly.
The court’s most ambitious attempt to link Serbia to Balkan war atrocities ended inconclusively when Milosevic died of a heart attack in his cell in The Hague in 2006, before a verdict could be reached in his trial for fomenting violence throughout the region as the former Yugoslavia crumbled.
Perisic, wearing a dark suit and tie, looked down and raised his eyebrows as presiding Judge Theodor Meron said his convictions were being overturned in a 4-1 ruling by the appeals panel.
His acquittal is final and cannot be further appealed.
It has long been known that Belgrade provided arms and other equipment to Bosnian Serb forces, but Meron said the aid was for the Bosnian Serb “war effort” and prosecutors failed to prove it was given with the “specific intent” for forces led by Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic to commit crimes.
The Muslim Bosniak member of Bosnia’s three-man presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, said he was stunned by the ruling.
“So the side that was helping the Bosnian Serb army is not guilty of the crimes they had committed,” he said. “But it lasted for years. If they did not know about the crimes at the start of the war, they knew about them in 1993, in 1994, and they continued to help.”
Perisic’s original conviction marked the first time the U.N. court had found a civilian or military officer from Serbia guilty of war crimes in Bosnia, and was seen as highlighting the Yugoslav Army’s far-reaching support for Serb forces in both Bosnia and Croatia.
Perisic also was acquitted Thursday of failing to punish rebel Serbs in Croatia who shelled Zagreb in May 1995.
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