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Yugoslavia Convicts Serb In its First War Crimes Trial BELGRADE, July 9 (Reuters) - A Serbian who fought with the dreaded "Yellow Bee" paramilitary unit was jailed for murder and rape on Tuesday in the first war crimes trial to be held in rump Yugoslavia since the Bosnian war erupted five years ago. A district court in the town of Sabac, 65 kilometres (40 miles) west of Belgrade, sentenced 32-year-old Dusko Vuckovic to seven years for killing 16 and wounding 20 Muslims near the Bosnian town of Zvornik and for raping a Muslim woman. Based on witness testimony, the court established that Vuckovic, nicknamed "Repic" (Ponytail), fired an entire 30-bullet magazine at Muslims who had been seized in the village of Divac near Zvornik. The court was told that Vuckovic, whose Yellow Bee unit terrorised Eastern Bosnia from 1992, had entered a room where the captured Muslims were being held and opened fire on them. The prosecution also proved that Vuckovic raped a Muslim woman on a deserted road along the Drina River which forms the border between Bosnian-Serbian border. Judge Vladimir Bajic said the court had not passed a stiffer sentence on Vukovic due to his "temporary insanity at the time of the committed crimes" and the fact that he had been arrested and tortured by the Muslim army in eastern Bosnia. Rump Yugoslavia has repeatedly refused to hand over suspects indicted for war crimes by a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, arguing that its law prohibits the extradition of Yugoslav citizens and saying that the suspects would face justice at home.

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