Bosnia Serb Plavsic set for war crimes 'mea culpa'

THE HAGUE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic, the highest-ranking figure to admit atrocities at The Hague tribunal, will seek to convince judges on Monday that she is filled with remorse for crimes against humanity.

Plavsic escaped trial after a surprise guilty plea in October. This week's sentencing hearing will see each side present arguments and call witnesses -- some expected to be high-profile -- before judges determine her sentence.

Plavsic, 72, changed her plea to guilty on one charge of persecution on political, racial and religious grounds. Her lawyers said she was "expressing her remorse fully and unconditionally". Other charges were dropped. (sounds like a condition to me, eh?)

In an interview with Belgrade daily Politika published on Sunday, Plavsic said she had not cut any deals to change her plea and would not testify in the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

"I have made no deal about the length of my sentence, nor did I want any such thing. My only condition was not to testify at other trials, and frankly speaking, I would not have anything to say at the trial against Milosevic," she said.

She said even if she had cut a deal to reduce her sentence, it would not have meant much. "What do ten years of prison mean to me? For me it is tantamount to a life sentence," she said.

She said she was going back to Scheveningen jail where she has already spent eight months, adding: "It is hard for me to get used to that again."

The former biology professor, who spent two years studying in the United States, had initially pleaded innocent to multiple counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes after surrendering to the U.N. court in January 2001.

Speculation over witnesses is rife. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright -- whose support for The Hague court has earned her the tag "the mother of the tribunal" -- and former U.N. Balkans envoy Carl Bildt are names on many lips.

Former Bosnian Serb prime minister Milorad Dodik has said he will appear for the defence at the three-day hearing.

The witnesses will testify for and against a woman once dubbed the "Iron Lady" for her steely leadership of Bosnia's Serbs in the 1992-5 Bosnian war.

"We see it as an extremely significant and important event," said Jim Landale, spokesman for the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Judges will retire to consider Plavsic's sentence after the hearing ends. A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

Sentencing hearings at The Hague usually last hours, not days, as lawyers argue rather than call witnesses (because it's a kangaroo court). But this is no ordinary hearing. Never before has someone who was so prominent during the Balkans wars pleaded guilty here.

Plavsic, who has been on provisional release for months, is expected to deliver a major "mea culpa" in a bid to illustrate her true remorse for the killings, psychological and sexual abuse and deportations inflicted on non-Serbs.

Prosecutors will remind judges of the heinous nature of the alleged crimes and are expected to seek a life sentence.

"This could potentially be a very significant message coming from The Hague to the people in former Yugoslavia, particularly the Serbs, about what happened," international justice expert Richard Dicker at Human Rights Watch in New York told Reuters.

"I'm hopeful it will be the most positive outreach from this court to various communities, particularly the Serb community, that has happened in the tribunal's nine-year history."

During the Bosnian war, Plavsic was deputy to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, one of the tribunal's most wanted men along with his former military commander Ratko Mladic.

She took over from Karadzic when he was forced from office in 1996, but broke with him a year later and campaigned to oust his hardline allies, with the support of the West.

Bosnians say she deserves punishment despite her remorse. (Additional reporting by Nedim Dervisbegovic in Sarajevo)

Kosta,this time I disagree with you.

No metter who is concerned,at least somebody has to say "Mea culpa"!Otherwise,everything that had happened overthere is just "one of those things"(a posh way of saying "Sheet happens!")That war was so dirty and in many ways bestial that I couldn`t believe my eyes,believe me.And Yugoslav political leaders are to blame ,no one else!Serbian,Croat,Muslim,Albanian...you name it!What can you say about Serbian "Glorious" leader,Milosevic?10 years of war and not even once he went to visit a wounded soldier???

They are all scum in my book!

Thank you for being honest with me, Brane. Some had to give orders, and someone had to carry them out. Two different sents of people. Without the little Hitlers on all sides, how could the big Hitlers be anything? Plavshich was a big Serb when things wree going well for the Serbs. But when things turned around, she jumped ship. Wrong thing to do.

I can understand that she may have latent pangs of sconscience, but her duty is not to be the apolgist for the entire nation.

If NATO didn't win the war for Croats, Muslim and Albanians, Plavshich would still be an ultranationalist without remorse. The "Iron Lady" of the Balkans is just faking it to save her miserable skin.

Dear Kosta,we have to be honest!Look what has happened to our country???Total eclipse of reason and humanity on many levels!I`ve been in that fucking war>And I am glad that I was but...the people on all sides that I`ve meat!?That`s why I left,honestly!What can you say about Milan Babich,witness C-61?Milan Babich aka "Sultan",because nobody was allowed to wake him up before noon,blames Miloshevich for "arming Krajina Serbs"??!!The same man who was ranting against JNA/VJ to my face for not supporting his grandiouse plans for Krajina?Telling me how we "Serbians are not real Serbs and not patriotic enough"!Who ousted Kapetan Dragan from Krajina because of his military proves and professionalism so that his gang of Knin robbers can`t take the glory?Who stole so much of humanitarian aid for Krajina?Bought properties in Belgrade and was the first to leave long before Croats attacked in`95?I loathed him at first site!A lazy average provintial dentist who back stabbed Milan Martich ,a real leader of Krajina rebelion and took his position.I will never forget when he came in our war hospital,somewhere in Krajina with his bunch of burly bodygards,and entered doctor`s room during dinner!Like Tito,all that was missing was Jovanka!Everybody stood up but I remained seated,eating.I was tired,pissed off with Krajina Serbs and the world in general.I looked at the guy and immediately decided that"verbal fight " was inevitable!So,after shaking hands with the rest of my colleagues,who were like first graders in the present of the teacher,he approached me and after a few seconds when everybody was avare that I am the only one sitting and eating,he said:"I am Milan Babich,Krajina President,please don`t stand up!"And extended his hand .I replied"And I am DrB.... specialist surgeon and surgeons don`t stand up to dentists!"You should see his face...than he started laughing!"I`ve heard about you!You deserve your reputation!"Never mind,tempi pasati!

Kosta,from people in Belgrade I`ve heard that B.Plavsich is seriously clinicaly depressed.Conditions of her "freedom" in Belgrade are very harsh,and she is not having a nice life at all.Maybe she has decided to plead guilty in the hind site,reexamining everything that had happened in Bosnia...maybe,as a woman she is more sensitive?What about suicide of Nikola Koljevich?Why did he do it?She,at the age of 72 has nothing to gain.She will die in prison,anyway!I find monastery more appropriate place for her.

But,in the other hand,as you said,if i were in her position(and of her age)confronted with Del Ponte and her perverts of justice,I would give them a "bird" and tell them to F-off!

Brane, I never supported Miloshevich, but he is at least dignified enough to face a certain conviction -- at least he will go down fighting and defiant. He epitomizes what Serbs always cherrished as their strong attributes, which is why he is still a hero to many.

Plavshich is spineless. She has no self-respect. If she is so truamatized by her evil deeds, if she is so depressed, why doesn't she do what others have done in her place (and especially at her age) -- blow her brains out and be done with it?

You know why, Brane? Because she stands to gain something by staying in Holland! It may be the best of the bad choices she has, but if she is depressed she is clining on to that life regardless. That doesn't fit the picture of a depressed person, does it? Is she on suicide watch? Don't you think, strictly medically speaking, that a "seriously depressed" patient would be? I think she is a liar. I think she would do anything to reduce her sentence, or at least get privileged treatment, and anything to save her miserable skin.

I must addmit that I don`t know what to think about her?I allready explained part of my position.In the other hand,if her mea culpa is going to be used as a mea culpa of a entire nation then she should known better!Than,she should use the example of Rade Markovich and go to Hague and embarass the court and do a real favour to her people!Her testimony on the trial(if we can call it that) would expose many things from that period and both Croats and Muslims would be cought in a lie just as a prosecution would.Miloshevich is doing a brilliant job`not because he is very smart but because,Del Ponte and Co are nothing but amateurs,so far!

Come to think of it ,I agree with your position,now!Because,if she goes on trial,she would have the oportunity to (on the record) finaly,disspel the lies about Markale "massacre",Bread que "massacre",bombing of Gorazde,sniping and killing of French soldiers in Sarajevo(done by Muslims)...and many other lies,sold to the world by Muslims and Western Media.All she has to do is to call Gen. Michael Rose as a witness!But,like this,Miloshevich will be the only one responssible for all evils,and no one will know what realy happened.

I agree Kosta,I wouldn`t use a word self respect in describing Mrs Plavsich today!

All the best!

Miloshevich is doing a brilliant job`not because he is very smart but because,Del Ponte and Co are nothing but amateurs,so far

Actually, Brane, he is quite brilliant. Brilliance is very rare, which is why we have committees -- it take a mass of brainpower to equal one brilliant human.

I have been reading his defense responses and I have not seen anything that was outright stupid. In fact, he is fighting an uphill battle with a predtermined outcome, and in a "court" that deviates from anything civlized world would call a court. It is a hearsay, tell on people, secret, inquisional "court," that at times sounds more like Soviet showtrial courts than a Western court of justice.

Plavshich's successor is Milorad Dodik, a political periphery who was allowed to govern by the barrel of NATO guns and not by the ballot. Dodik, too, is a "witness" on Plavshich's trial -- for the defense. His cliam to fame is that he signed off all the rights of the Jasenovac death camp documents stored in Banyaluka. NATO took and turned all of them to the American Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The Museum opened the document canisters in presence of Croatian government officials and done who knows what to them. The important thing is -- they refulse to release any of them to the public to see. That's the kind of trecherous people Plavshich surrounded herself with.

Mind you, she split from the SDS because of "corruption." It took her all that time to figure out that human nature in general, and Balkan mentality in pericular, equal corrptuion? And she has a PhD? She didn't cite policy differences or pangs of conscience when she decided to jump ship.

Her closest confidant and "soulmate" is none other than Zoran Djindjich, the man who kissed Albright's hands together with Drashkovich, in Istanbul in 1999 right after the end of NATO's bombing; the man who spent the entire bombing campaing hunkering in Monetengro. What a patriot!

With such company, Plavshich's real problem is her lack of character, not her "clinical depression." Which is why she found it so easy to befriend Madeliene Albright. At any rate, her cell in the Hague will be comfortable, heated in the winter, and cooled in the summer. As the only woman accused and confessed of crimes, the whole damn faiclity will be hers. Males will not share the same prison side with her. She will have all the time and medical care at her disposal, telephone, TV, Internet, you name it. And, if she is willing to "choregraph" and rewrite some history for her masters, she may get a few more perks. As I said: it's not a bad retirement. She won't go hungry or cold, and she won't be shoveling rocks, making big piles into small piles day in and day out. And, being there will be a heck of a lot better than being in Belgrade, "depressed."

KOCTA

Kosta,as I said before,it is not very dificult to be "brilliant" in Hague.I am astonished by a low level of jurisprudence displayed at that "Star Chamber"!When Karla brings a "witness" from Kosovo allready discarded as a witness by UNMIK in Prishtina in Racak Case,who had claimed that "..he survived massacre and listened how Serbs were singing war songs while they were gauging eyes from the victims,and how couple of victims had their hearts carved out by the Serbs...",we all had to lough!The fact that there was no mutilations on the bodies of dead Albanians wasn`t important for Del Ponte!Miloshevic is using their mistakes to the full.If he had a decent legal team Hague sharade would be in serious trouble.But,that would mean reccognision of that court.And,he doesn`t want that.But,as you`ve said ,he will go down fighting.

I`ve read today`s statement by Mrs Plavshic in Hague.She said a lot of true things.Still have to "digest" the whole thing to make a final oppinion.

Now,murderers have all the proof about their crime at their disposal!Thank you Dodik

I would say they had them -- and disposal is a general term: is it pohrana or sahrana? I would like to see them, accounted for and all. But I would say they used them for fascist rally bonfires.

With no documents, Slavko Goldstein and his revisonist friends(who refuse an independent Jasenovac investigation) can lower the figure of Serbs (and increase the figure of Jews) killed in Jasenovac as it suits the current regime. Pavelic is very happy. And the Croats are singing "danke Amerika!"

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