Bosnian Serb jailed for 20 years over war crimes

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, Mar 9 (Reuters) A court in Bosnia's Serb Republic sentenced an ex-soldier to 20 years in prison for war crimes today, the longest jail term handed down so far in the semi-autonomous region.

The Banja Luka district court ruled that former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Milanko Vujanovic, 48, was guilty of murdering five Muslim civilians in a northern village in October 1992 along with two other unknown soldiers.

''Based on statements by witnesses and material evidence gathered during the investigation it was found that Vujanovic knew these were non-Serbs who were not engaged in the military,'' the judges said in their ruling.

This is the second war crimes ruling in the Serb Republic, one of the two ethnic regions created after Bosnia's 1992-95 war in which 100,000 people died, mostly Bosnian Muslims.

The other region, the Muslim-Croat federation, has conducted many more war crimes investigations and trials.

REUTERS PR VC2016