Biljana Plavsic, Former Bosnian Serb Leader Convicted of War Crimes, Dies at 96

Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic, who pleaded guilty at a United Nations tribunal to persecution as a crime against humanity for her role in atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian War, has died in Belgrade, Serbia, according to Bosnian Serb public media. She was 96.

Plavsic was one of the key Bosnian Serb officials involved in implementing the Dayton peace agreement following the war, serving as president of the Bosnian Serb political entity, Republika Srpska. During the conflict, she was a member of the Bosnian Serb leadership council. Western officials considered her more liberal than other Bosnian Serb leaders, and she became an opponent of wartime Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.

In 2000, the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicted Plavsic on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for her alleged involvement in the wartime campaign to establish a separate Serb entity in Bosnia. She voluntarily surrendered to the tribunal in 2001 and later pleaded guilty to the crime against humanity of persecution. Other charges were dismissed.

The U.N. court stated that Plavsic "disregarded reports of widespread ethnic cleansing and publicly rationalized and justified it." It added that she was aware that key leaders of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ignored these crimes despite having the power to prevent and punish them.

She was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was released in 2009 after serving two-thirds of her sentence. The court suggested that Plavsic's guilty plea and acknowledgment of responsibility "should promote reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region as a whole."

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright testified at a sentencing hearing that Plavsic actively supported the Dayton peace agreement, stating that she "stood up for that at times when it was very difficult, when there were those who wanted to destroy the Dayton Accords," according to a court statement.

Milorad Dodik, the current leader of Republika Srpska, expressed his condolences, calling Plavsic a close associate who deserved state honors. Dodik, who was barred from public office last year for efforts to separate Republika Srpska from Bosnia, stated, "Unfortunately, she was unjustly held accountable before the Hague tribunal... But that was part of a trend in which anyone who held a position in Republika Srpska was held accountable, even if they had personally committed no crime."

Plavsic's death follows that of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who died in detention weeks earlier after being convicted of genocide and other crimes during the Bosnian War.

Before entering politics, Plavsic was a professor of natural sciences and a faculty dean at the University of Sarajevo. Since her release from prison, she had withdrawn from public life and resided in Belgrade.