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Concept
Borislav Herak
Summary
Borislav Herak (Serbian Cyrillic: Борислав Херак; born 18 January 1971) is a Bosnian Serb former soldier who fought with the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in the early days of the Bosnian War. In March 1993, after falling in the hands of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), he was put on trial at the Sarajevo Military District Court, becoming the first person to be convicted of genocide on the basis of his own testimony in which he admitted guilt for crimes charged against him—32 murders and 16 rapes.
Herak's confessions were the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by John F. Burns.
On 7 February 1993 the District Military Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo filed an indictment with the District Military Court in Sarajevo against Herak for genocide, war crimes against a civilian population and war crimes against prisoners of war, committed while he was a member of "Bioča Company" and "Kremeš Company". Borislav Herak was charged with 32 murders and 16 rapes, including 12 in which the victims were murdered. Sretko Damjanović, indicted with him for genocide and war crimes against a civilian population, was charged with five murders and two rapes, and Nada Tomić was charged with concealment of crime for hiding fugitives (Herak and Damjanović) and stolen goods.
The trial of Damjanović and Herak in March 1993 was the first attempt by the Sarajevo legal system to try Bosnian Serbs for genocide and other war crimes. During his trial Herak said he was sent with some soldiers from Serbia to the village of Ahatovići, near Sarajevo, with orders "to kill everybody and burn everything down." About 150 villagers, including children, were herded together and machine-gunned before being dumped, some still alive, in a mass grave. Herak also confessed to rapes and murders of detainees at the Cafe Sonya/Kod Sonje rape camp run by Miro Vuković near the United Nations headquarters in Sarajevo.
In March 1993, by a judgment of the District Military Court, Herak and Damjanović were found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death.
Official source
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