Biljana Plavšić's lack of remorse detailed in new book

Olivera Simić, a law professor at Griffith University in Australia, has released a book titled ‘Madam Ratna Zločinka: Biljana Plavšić, Srpska Čelična Lady’, detailing seven years of interviews with the former Bosnian Serb leader.

Plavšić, a former biologist and President of Republika Srpska, was the only woman among 161 individuals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She was the first high-ranking politician prosecuted for mass crimes. During the war, she defended the ethnic cleansing of Croats and Bosniaks as a ‘natural phenomenon,’ justifying the actions of Serbian paramilitary groups through theories of ethnic and racial superiority.

According to Simić, Plavšić expressed no remorse for her political decisions. Plavšić stated that she pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity primarily to avoid a lengthy trial, noting, ‘I did nothing wrong. I admitted guilt to crimes against humanity so they would drop the other charges.’ The book is based on extensive interviews and access to Plavšić’s private archive, which includes hundreds of letters and original wartime documents.