Bosnian Serb admits to ethnic cleansing
The week's news at a glance.
The Hague
Biljana Plavsic, a former president of the Bosnian Serb republic, has expressed her “responsibility and remorse, fully and unconditionally,” for her role in orchestrating the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats in Bosnia. She is the first political or military leader at any international court, from Nuremberg until now, to admit her crimes and apologize for them. Plavsic, 72, has admitted to covering up crimes and “publicly rationalizing and justifying the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs” while she was a member of the collective Bosnian Serb presidency. During her 1992 tenure, Bosnian Serb paramilitaries rounded up Muslims and Croats, killing the men, raping the women, and dumping survivors in concentration camps. Over the following several years, some 200,000 people died in the camps and the fighting.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Kim Ju Ae: North Korea’s next leader?
The Explainer Kim Jong Un’s young daughter is being seen as his ‘recognised heir’ following a high-profile public appearance at China summit
-
Is the UK government getting too close to Big Tech?
Today’s Big Question US-UK tech pact, supported by Nvidia and OpenAI, is part of Silicon Valley drive to ‘lock in’ American AI with US allies
-
Russia’s war games and the threat to Nato
In depth Incursion into Poland and Zapad 2025 exercises seen as a test for Europe