Former president Biljana Plavšić dies in Belgrade at 96 — Balkan Insight

Biljana Plavšić, one of the wartime leaders of Bosnian Serbs during the 1992–1995 war, has died in Belgrade, Serbia, at the age of 96. Her death was reported by the public broadcaster of Republika Srpska, RTRS, Balkan Insight writes.

Verdict of the Hague Tribunal

During the war, Plavšić was vice president of Republika Srpska, a Bosnian Serb entity. In February 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague sentenced her to 11 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to persecution of Bosniaks, Croats and other non-Serbs.

In June 2003, she was transferred to Sweden to serve her sentence. In October 2009, Plavšić was released after serving two-thirds of her term. She then returned to Belgrade, where she lived in seclusion and did not participate in political life.

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Political career and later statements

Plavšić was born in 1930 in the Bosnian city of Tuzla. Before her political career, she taught biology. From November 1990 to December 1992, she was the Serb representative in the collective presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from 1996 to November 1998, she served as the second president of Republika Srpska.

She was the only woman indicted and convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Plavšić later told the Swedish magazine Vi that she pleaded guilty so that other charges against her would be dropped and that she had done nothing wrong. In a 2019 conversation with BIRN, she said she did not remember expressing remorse in court, adding: “I am trying to forget that period.”