The Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague has convicted seven high-ranking Bosnian Serb military and police officials for their part in the genocide in the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Colonels Vujadin Popovic and Ljubiša Beara both received life sentences for genocide. Five other police and army officers were found guilty of crimes ranging from persecution and inhumane acts to murder and aiding and abetting genocide. They were sentenced to jail terms of between five and 35 years.

The judgement concludes the largest trial to date in connection with crimes committed by Bosnian Serb forces against Bosnian Muslims after the fall of Srebrenica.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirmed that the Bosnian Serb forces murdered nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a systematic attack on the civilian population, set in motion on the orders of former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžic.

Dutchbat troops charged with protecting the enclave failed to prevent the massacre. Bosnian Serb Army Chief Ratko Mladic is still a fugitive from the court.

Genocide
In handing down its verdict, the court concluded that "the scale and nature of the murder operation, with the staggering number of killings, the systematic and organised manner in which it was carried out, the targeting and relentless pursuit of the victims, and the plain intention - apparent from the evidence - to eliminate every Bosnian Muslim male who was captured or surrendered, proves beyond reasonable doubt that this was genocide."