UN judges convicted two former Serb paramilitaries Monday of crimes against humanity committed during the 1992 - 1995 Bosnia war.

Cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic were charged with 21 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including charges of extermination, murder, persecution and inhumane acts, for their actions as members of a paramilitary group in the small-eastern Bosnia town of Visegrad. In total, they were found guilty of the deaths of some 132 Muslim civilians.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague sentenced Milan Lukic to life imprisonment while Sredoje Lukic will serve 30 years in prison.

"What the two accused destroyed in June of 1992 is far beyond their capacity to repay," prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges as the trial wrapped up in May. "Spending the remainder of their lives incarcerated is simply a nominal token toward the loss they occasioned."
 
The cousins' defence attorneys argued  that they should be acquitted for lack of evidence, citing inconsistencies in the accounts of a handful of survivors of the horrific attacks who testified for prosecutors.

According to the verdict, the cousins burned down two different houses, killing dozens of people. On 14 June 1992, they locked 59 Muslim civilians into a room on Pionirska Street in Visegrad which was then set on fire. Milan Lukic shot at people trying to escape from the flames.

Milan Lukic was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians 13 days later in a house in the Bikavac settlement in Visegrad.  He and other armed Serb group members forced the people inside the house, blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the place on fire.

Earlier that month, 41-year-old Milan killed five men at the Drina river, seven Muslim men at the Varda factory in Visegrad town and Hajra Korić, a Bosnian Muslim woman from the "Potok" neighbourhood in Visegrad. He was also found guilty of beating Muslim detainees in the Uzamnica detention camp.

41-year-old Milan was a founding member of the group known as the 'White Eagles'or 'Avengers' that terrorized Muslims in Visegrad. His 48-year-old cousin Sredoje also joined the group later.

Milan Lukic was arrested in August 2005 in Argentina and sent for trial in The Hague. His cousin surrendered to Bosnian Serb authorities and was transferred to The Hague a few weeks later.