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. Lukić's cousin, Sredoje Lukić, and a close family friend Mitar Vasiljević were also convicted by the ICTY and sentenced to 30 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.
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.
Lukić was also responsible for the Sjeverin and Štrpci massacres, in which non-Serb citizens of Serbia and Montenegro were abducted and then murdered on Bosnian territory. The failure of the Serbian authorities to conduct an adequate investigation remains a significant political issue in Serbia. 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. His parents are Mile and Kata Lukić, and his parents had two other sons, Gojko and Novica, and one daughter, Draginja. Milan grew up in the village of Rujište, about north of the town of Višegrad. From 1974 onwards he attended primary school in the village of Klašnik for four years, then Prelovo for a further four years. In 1982 he was registered as attending the Ivo Andrić school in Višegrad first studying hospitality, then metallurgy. His study and work activities immediately after this are not clear, but it is known that he worked as a bartender and lived in both Offenbach am Main in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland. During the Bosnian War Milan lived with his parents and a brother on Pionirska Street in Višegrad, but may have lived in the nearby village of Šeganje for a period in 1992.
Crimes during the Bosnian war Višegrad massacres
On 19 May 1992 the JNA Užice Corps officially withdrew from the town and local Serb leaders established the Serbian Municipality of Višegrad, taking control of all municipal government offices. Soon after, local Serbs, police and paramilitaries began one of the most notorious campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the conflict, designed to permanently rid the town of its Bosniak population.
Serb forces attacked and destroyed a number of Bosniak villages. A large number of Bosniak civilians in the town of Višegrad were killed. The Drina River was used to dump many of the bodies of the Bosniak men, women and children killed around the town and on the historic Turkish bridge crossing the Drina. Serb forces were implicated in the systematic looting and destruction of Bosniak homes and villages. Both of the town's mosques were completely destroyed. Many of the Bosniaks who were not immediately killed were detained at various locations in the town, as well as the former JNA military barracks at Uzamnica (5 kilometres outside of Višegrad), the Vilina Vlas Hotel and other detention sites in the area. Those detained at Uzamnica were subjected to inhumane conditions, including regular beatings, torture by Bosnian Serbs and strenuous forced labour.
Ethnic cleansing was carried out on orders from the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić and the military commander General Ratko Mladić and as elsewhere in Bosnia, persecution and mass murder was overseen by a local Bosnian Serb "Crisis Committee", under the presidency of Branimir Savović.
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."
Sjeverin massacre
On the morning of 22 October 1992, a bus travelling from Priboj, Sandžak, Serbia to Rudo, Bosnia, was stopped in the Bosnian village of Mioče by four members of the Osvetnici (Avengers) paramilitary unit under the command of Milan Lukić. The other members of the group were Oliver Krsmanović, Dragutin Dragicević, and Đorđe Sević. 16 Bosniak passengers from Sjeverin - 15 men and one woman, all Yugoslavian and/or Serbian citizens - were taken off the bus and forced onto a truck. They were taken to Višegrad, which was under the control of the Bosnian Serb Army, to the Vilina Vlas hotel. The hostages were severely beaten and tortured inside the hotel and then taken to the edge of the Drina river, where they were executed.
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.
During the war Immediately following the abductions the local people in Sjeverin were subjected to further intimidation by Milan Lukić. In the absence of effective action by the Serbian authorities the remaining Bosniak inhabitants of Sjeverin fled to Priboj.
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.
Milan Lukić was arrested by the Serbian police in 1993 on suspicion of having murdered a resident of Višegrad on Serbian territory. In 1994 he was again arrested on suspicion of being the commander of the group that abducted a group of mainly Bosnian Muslim passengers from the Belgrade-Bar train at Štrpci station and then killed them. Each time the investigation was stopped and Lukić was released.
Post-war After the war, Lukić allegedly was involved in a variety of criminal rackets operating across the porous border between Serbia and Republika Srpska.
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. Serb and Bosnian Serb authorities took no action to hand Lukić over to the ICTY, as extradition was against constitution at the time. However, he was repeatedly charged with racketeering and other organised crime offences and arrested three times by Serbian police during the 1990s on charges including illegal possession of firearms, forging of documents and the murder of a Serb from Višegrad who had helped Bosnian Muslims flee the town. Each time he was released.
Lukić was linked to Radovan Karadžić as part of a drug-smuggling ring connected to Karadžić's business network whose profits funded the "Preventiva" network that protected Karadžić and provided Lukić with cover. Lukić's cousin, Sreten Lukić, deputy interior minister of Serbia, in charge of the Serbian police, also helped protect him. In October 2002, after the fall of Milošević, the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Belgrade issued indictments against Lukić, Dragutin Dragićević, Oliver Krsmanović, Đorđe Šević, and five other persons on charges relating to the Sjeverin massacre.
In 2003 an ICTY official confirmed that Lukic had been discussing the possibility of surrender for several years and contacts with The Hague intensified as the relationship with Karadžić deteriorated. However an attempt to set up a meeting between Lukić and representatives of the ICTY in April 2004 culminated in Milan's brother, Novica Lukić, being shot dead during a raid on the Lukić family home in Visegrad by Republika Srpska Interior Ministry special forces.
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. The convictions were the first secured following the appointment of a Serbian special war crimes prosecutor in July 2003.
Disappearance In January 2004, Lukić quarreled with Karadžić's armed bodyguards and was reportedly injured in a shootout over his share of the proceeds from a particular drugs shipment. By the time a report was published in April 2004 by Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network linking him to Radovan Karadžić, Lukić had vanished.