The Hague war crimes tribunal has sentenced three former Bosnian Serb regional officials to up to 17 years' imprisonment for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats during the 1992-5 Bosnia war.
Blagoje Simic, Miroslav Tadic and Simo Zaric - who had all surrendered to the tribunal - were convicted of planning and waging a campaign of killing, detention, torture and deportation against non-Serbs in the Bosanski Samac area of northern Bosnia.
The men listened to the sentences impassively, standing while three judges took turns to read out the long list of charges and decisions.
The men had pleaded not guilty to two counts of crimes against humanity and one of breaching the Geneva conventions.
Prosecutors said they had been among senior regional officials involved in the Serb takeover of Bosanski Samac in spring 1992.
The men "committed, planned, instigated, ordered or otherwise aided and abetted a campaign of persecutions for the common purpose of ridding the Bosanski Samac and Odzak municipalities of all non-Serbs", according to the indictment.
"Nobody forced these defendants to immerse themselves so readily in the system of terror that gripped that part of the former Yugoslavia," prosecutor Gramshi di Fazio told the UN tribunal when the trial opened in September 2001.
Simic (43) was sentenced to 17 years, Tadic (66) was sentenced to eight years and Zaric (55) to six. During the sentencing, the judges said they were guilty of aiding and abetting persecution and had given moral support to people carrying out torture.