Milan Lukić

Milan Lukić (; born 6 September 1967) is the former leader of the Bosnian Serb paramilitary force the White Eagles that operated during the Bosnian War. He was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in July 2009 of crimes against humanity and violations of war customs committed in the Višegrad municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian war and sentenced to life in prison.

The crimes of which Lukić was convicted include murder, torture, assault, looting, destruction of property and the killing of at least 132 identified men, women and children.

Among the crimes in and around Višegrad for which Lukić and the unit under his command were held responsible were the Pionirska street fire and the Bikavac fire which, the ICTY Trial Chamber observed, exemplified the worst acts of inhumanity that a person may inflict upon others and "ranked high in the long, sad and wretched history of man's inhumanity to man". Lukić was only the second individual to be sentenced by the tribunal to life imprisonment, in 2006. In a 1992 interview with the Belgrade magazine Duga, in which he confessed to some of his crimes, Lukić said, "I don't have a guilty conscience over any of them."

Early life and work Milan Lukić was born on 6 September 1967 in Foča in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Milan Lukić returned to Višegrad in 1992 after working abroad for a time before the war in Germany and Switzerland.

Lukić said he returned from Zurich when the fighting began in Visegrad to join a unit organised by his cousin Sredoje, and Niko Vujačić. Lukić was responsible for organising a group of local paramilitaries referred to variously as the White Eagles, the Avengers or the Wolves, with ties to the Višegrad police and Serb military units. The group committed numerous crimes in the Višegrad municipality including murder, rape, torture, beatings, looting and destruction of property, and played a prominent role in the ethnic cleansing of the town and surrounding area of its Bosniak inhabitants. These crimes included two particular crimes of which it was observed by the ICTY Trial Chamber in the summary of its conclusions in the Lukić cousins' trial that "The Pionirska street fire and the Bikavac fire exemplify the worst acts of inhumanity that a person may inflict upon others."

Shortly after the abduction, Lukić was stopped by Serbian police when driving through Sjeverin and found in possession of weapons and forging personal documents. He was charged, but released from custody. In October 2002, after the fall of Slobodan Milošević, indictments were issued against Milan Lukić and others. Witness protection proved problematic in the trial. On 29 September 2003, Dragićević, Krsmanović, and Lukić were found guilty of the torture and murder of the abductees; Krsmanović and Lukić were convicted in absentia.

Štrpci massacre

On 27 February 1993 members of the Serbian "Avengers" ("Osvetnici") military unit, commanded by Milan Lukić, abducted a group of 19 non-Serb citizens of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro (18 Bosniaks and one Croat) from the Belgrade-Bar train at Štrpci station near Priboj. The abductees were robbed and physically abused, then tortured and killed in the garage of a burned-out house in the village of Visegradska banja, near Višegrad, close to the Drina river. Their remains have not been found.

At the trial of Nebojša Ranisavljević, the only suspect convicted for the crime, Luka Dragicević, Commander of the Višegrad brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (RSA), admitted the "Avengers" unit were part of these armed forces. Dragicević transferred after the war to a position in the FRY Army. Police and judicial officials in Serbia are alleged to have obstructed court proceedings against Milan Lukić.

Four days after the abductions Serbian police stopped Milan Lukić driving through Sjeverin. Lukić produced a forged ID and driver's licence, issued by the Višegrad police. The police found weapons and ammunition in the car. Lukić and Dragutin Dragićević were charged with illegal possession of weapons and forging personal documents. After a visit to the area by Radmilo Bogdanović, president of the Defense and Security Committee of the Yugoslav Parliament's Chamber of Citizens, an influential figure in Serbian police circles, Lukić and Dragicević were released from custody on grounds that lacked transparency.

In 1998, ICTY prosecutors charged him with 11 counts of crimes against humanity and nine other counts of violations of the laws or customs of war. For a long time he lived quite openly and was often seen around Višegrad and in Serbia, where he owned an apartment in Belgrade.

Trial in absentia for the Sjeverin massacre On 29 September 2003, Dragutin Dragićević, Oliver Krsmanović and Milan Lukić were found guilty of the torture and murder of the abductees and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment (the latter two in absentia) while Đorđe Šević was sentenced to 15 years. Witness protection had proved problematic in the trial.

ICTY trial and conviction

Milan Lukić was charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility (Article 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal) with: Milan Lukić led seven Bosnian Muslim men to a site on the bank of the Drina river, near Višegrad, forced them to line up along the bank, and then shot them, killing five of the men. He forced seven Bosnian Muslim men from the Varda sawmill and furniture factory in Višegrad to go to the bank of the Drina river, and then shot them repeatedly, killing all seven men. He murdered approximately 70 Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly men in a house on Pionirska Street in Višegrad by barricading the victims in one room of the house, setting the house on fire and then firing automatic weapons at those people who tried to escape through the windows, killing some and injuring others. He murdered approximately 70 Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly men in a house in the village of Bikavac, near Višegrad, by forcing the victims into the house, barricading all the exits and throwing in several explosive devices. He brutally murdered a Bosnian Muslim woman in the Potok neighbourhood of Višegrad. He beat, on multiple occasions, Bosnian Muslim men who were detained in the detention camp at the Uzamnica military barracks in Višegrad.

Lukić's defense claimed he was a victim of "rumors" and mistaken identity claiming witnesses had misidentified him. Lukić was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. His cousin Sredoje Lukić was found guilty of crimes including aiding and abetting the murders at Pionirska Street and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.

The Vilina Vlas spa hotel on the outskirts of Višegrad was used as a rape camp while it was also the Lukićs' unit's command post. One woman stated that Lukić raped her several times while she was one of a reported 200 women held in the Vilina Vlas spa hotel. This was after he had earlier raped her in her own home, slaughtered her 16-year-old son with a knife, and then raped her again in the garden. She believed only a handful of the women survived the camp as most were killed or took their own lives. She told Balkan Insight she saw one suicide herself, when a girl jumped from a second-floor room through a glass balcony. The Association of Women Victims of War believes that fewer than ten women prisoners survived.

In March 2015, Lukić filed a "human rights" complaint requesting to be transferred to Scheveningen detention unit then relocate to a prison in Germany, claiming "psychological pain" from isolation due to his inability to speak Estonian. He also stated the distance from his wife and 1 year old son, who both live in Germany, as a further "aggravating circumstance".

The prosecution requested the Tribunal to dismiss, in its entirety, Lukić's request stating that his human rights have not been violated and he was never "denied the possibility" to communicate or meet with his family, citing 11 family visits in 2014.

In December 2020 the Hague Tribunal rejected a request by Lukić for a revision of his life sentence.

Confession of a Hague Prisoner On 29 July 2011, the parish house of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade hosted an event to promote the launch of Milan Lukić's book the Confession of a Hague Prisoner (Ispovest haškog sužnja) and was attended by several priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church and by many of Lukić's supporters. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade urged that the "institutions and citizens of the Republic of Serbia to condemn publicly the use of the Parish House of the Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade for the launch of a book by the convicted war criminal Milan Lukić during which priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church took part in the eulogisation of a war criminal responsible for some of the most terrible crimes against humanity." The Humanitarian Law Center demanded "that the Patriarch reveal the names of the priests who took part in this public event and explain to the public why a religious building whose construction was paid for by the state and many individual citizens has been used to celebrate a convicted war criminal who burned women and children alive."

Lukić's book was published by the Serbian Radical Party with an initial run of 1,000 copies. A second edition followed shortly thereafter, with a run of 10,000 copies.

On 11 October 2011, the Valjevo Municipal Assembly denied the Serbian Radical Party's request to use the great hall of the local parliament building as a space to promote Lukić's book on the grounds that it was revealed that the book's author was in fact Rajko Đurđević and not Milan Lukić. After the failed request, the Serbian Radical Party promoted the book at Valjevo's city square.