A Convicted War Criminal Killed Himself on Camera at The Hague, and It Was Barely a Blip in Our Crazy News Cycle
Photo by Michel Porro/Getty
The United Nations heard an appeal yesterday from convicted Bosnian war criminal Slobodan Praljak. Parljak was sentenced to 20 years for ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th century bridge in 1993, which judges in the initial trial had said “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population” during the breakup of Yugoslavia. The judges in Praljak’s appeal did accept that the bridge was a legitimate military target, and they overturned some of his convictions, despite not reducing his sentence.
The war in Bosnia was one of the most violent clashes of the 1990s. Roughly 100,000 people died and over two million were displaced. The fighting mainly pitted Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Serbs, although Bosnian Croats also fought against Bosnian Muslims after an alliance had fallen apart. Current Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic said of Parljak: “His act, which we regrettably saw today, mostly speaks about a deep moral injustice towards six Croats from Bosnia and the Croatian people … We voice dissatisfaction and regret about the verdict.” (here is a quick summary of the wildly complex war in the Balkans for the uninitiated)
Here is video of the events at The Hague. It is not graphic, and without the audio, it simply looks like a man throwing back a shot, but authorities confirmed his death via poisoning.