'Iron Lady' accused of betrayal of humanity

The one-time "Iron Lady" of the Balkans, the former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic, sat impassively in the dock yesterday as a Nobel prize winner and survivor of Auschwitz accused her of a "betrayal of humanity", for her role in savage ethnic cleansing.

In a day of courtroom drama in The Hague, Mrs Plavsic, 72, was told war crimes she has admitted were inexcusable, and that the punishment she receives will be of universal significance. "The civilised world is relying on you and upon your conscience," 74-year-old Elie Wiesel, a Nobel peace prize winner said on a video link from Paris. "Your sentence will reverberate across national and ethnic borders."

The most senior Bosnian Serb politician to accept blame for the atrocities in the Balkan wars of 1992-95, tomorrow Mrs Plavsic is expected to put on record her remorse for the wave of ethnic cleansing which claimed 200,000 lives.

As the sentencing hearing began, prosecutors showed harrowing footage of emaciated Bosnian Muslim inmates at a Serb-run detention camp in 1992, scenes which revived memories of the Nazi death camps of the Second World War. "How could she remain human in the face of such a betrayal of humanity?" Mr Wiesel asked, noting the former science professor's academic credentials and background.

"For the orphans, be they children or adults, the world is no longer the same. A woman who has been raped remains so for life. Their dreams have become nightmares."

The silver-haired Mrs Plavsic, in a green and red plaid suit, had been a key ally of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who remains at large. She is the only woman to be indicted publicly by the tribunal.

Today the former UN Balkans envoy Carl Bildt, and Robert Frowick, who was head of the OSCE's mission in the region, are to testify followed by the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who has been called by both defence and prosecution lawyers. Mrs Plavsic became friendly with Mrs Albright when she served from 1996-98 as president of the Serb region of Bosnia created under the Dayton plan.

The hearing follows Mrs Plavsic's decision to change her plea to guilty on one charge of persecution, in a move her lawyers said showed "her remorse fully and unconditionally". Other allegations, including genocide, were dropped.

Officials at the court hailed yesterday's hearing as a legal landmark. "It is of enormous significance that Mrs Plavsic accepts before this chamber that horrendous crimes were committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that she acknowledges her own individual criminal responsibility for them," the UN chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said.

"Many of those who survived will bear the scars for the rest of their lives. There is nothing in the nature of a plea of guilty which in any way alters the seriousness of the crimes themselves." Jim Landale, spokesman for the tribunal, added that Mrs Plavsic's decision "will prevent revisionism and will play a major part in the process of reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia".

In a document produced to explain her guilty plea, Mrs Plavsic acknowledged that she covered up crimes, ignored widespread allegations of criminal acts and "publicly rationalised and justified the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs".

The document added: "Mrs Plavsic embraced and supported the objective of ethnic separation by force and contributed to achieving it." Among the less well-known witnesses called yesterday were a Bosnian Muslim survivor of a Serb-run detention camp who described what he called "disastrous" and "catastrophic" detention conditions.

Prisoners endured daily beatings and humiliation, Adil Draganovic said. "The conditions were disastrous, they were inhuman and really brutal," he said.

While the prosecution is delighted by Mrs Plavsic's guilty plea, she has disappointed them by refusing to give evidence against the former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic.

Before the hearing, Mrs Plavsic said she "made no deal about the length of my sentence, nor did I want any such thing", adding: "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." Even if she had cut a deal to reduce her sentence, it would not have meant much, she said. "What do 10 years of prison mean to me? For me it is tantamount to a life sentence."