Biljana Plavšić Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Prof. Dr. Biljana Plavšić
Биљана Плавшић
Plavšić in 1996

2nd President of Republika Srpska
In office 19 July 1996 – 4 November 1998
Vice President	Nikola Koljević Dragoljub Mirjanić
Preceded by	Radovan Karadžić
Succeeded by	Nikola Poplašen
Vice President of Republika Srpska
In office December 1992 – 19 July 1996 Serving with Nikola Koljević
President	Radovan Karadžić
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Dragoljub Mirjanić
Serb Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office 20 December 1990 – 9 April 1992 Serving with Nikola Koljević
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Nenad Kecmanović

Personal details
Born	(1930-07-07) 7 July 1930 (age 94) Tuzla, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Political party	Serb National Alliance (1997–2006) Serb Democratic Party (1990–1997)
Alma mater	University of Zagreb
Nicknames	Serb Iron Lady Serb Empress (by Željko Ražnatović Arkan)

Biljana Plavšić (Serbian Cyrillic: Биљана Плавшић; born 7 July 1930) is a former politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was also a university professor and scientist. She served as the President of Republika Srpska, which is one of the two main parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Later, she was found responsible for serious actions during the Bosnian War. In 2001, she was charged by a special court called the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She agreed to admit guilt for some actions and was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2003. She served her time in a Swedish prison.

She was released on 27 October 2009 after serving most of her sentence. Biljana Plavšić was one of the highest-ranking politicians from the Bosnian Serb community to be held accountable for actions during the war. Before she became a politician, she taught biology at the University of Sarajevo.

Academic Career
Political Career
Legal Proceedings and Sentence
Awards and Decorations
Images for kids
See also

Academic Career

Before entering politics, Biljana Plavšić was a respected university professor. She taught biology at the University of Sarajevo. She even became the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics there.

She was a Fulbright Scholar, which means she received a special scholarship to study abroad. She spent two years at the Boyce-Thompson Institute at Cornell University in New York. There, she focused on botany research.

After that, she specialized in using electron microscopes in London. She also studied plant viruses in Prague and Bari. She wrote and published more than one hundred scientific works and papers during her academic career.

Political Career

Biljana Plavšić joined the Serb Democratic Party (SDS). She made history as the first woman to be a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She served in this role from November 1990 to April 1992. She was elected during the first multi-party elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From February to May 1992, Plavšić was one of two acting presidents of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later, she became one of the two Vice-presidents of the Republika Srpska. Around November 1992, she also became a member of the Supreme Command of the armed forces of the Republika Srpska.

Plavšić and other Bosnian Serb women leaders in Banja Luka

During the war, Plavšić held very strong views. She believed that Serbs needed to fight for their freedom. She also supported actions that led to non-Serbs leaving certain areas.

After the Dayton Agreement was signed in 1995, the then-President of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, was not allowed to hold office. Biljana Plavšić was then chosen to run as the SDS candidate for President of the Republika Srpska. She won and served a two-year term.

She later left the SDS party and started her own party, the Serbian People's Alliance of the Republika Srpska. She nominated Milorad Dodik to be the Prime Minister. In the 1998 election, she lost to Nikola Poplašen. While in prison, she wrote a book called "Witnessings" (Svjedočenja). This book shared many details about the political life in Republika Srpska during the war.

Legal Proceedings and Sentence

Biljana Plavšić was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The charges were related to creating difficult living conditions for non-Serbs. This included actions like forcing people to leave their homes and causing fear.

The charges against her included:

Actions related to genocide
Several counts of crimes against humanity (like murder, persecution, and forced removal of people)
Violations of the laws of war

She voluntarily went to the ICTY on 10 January 2001. She was temporarily released on 6 September of that year.

On 16 December 2002, she made an agreement with the ICTY. She pleaded guilty to one charge of crimes against humanity. This was for her role in leading the war and targeting civilians. She said she felt "full remorse" for her actions. In return, prosecutors dropped seven other war crimes charges, including the genocide charges.

Plavšić in 2021 after recovering from COVID-19

Plavšić explained in an interview in 2005 that she pleaded guilty because she couldn't find witnesses to prove her innocence. She repeated this in a 2009 interview. She said she pleaded guilty to avoid the more serious charges, like genocide. Her guilty plea led the court to give her a lower sentence and drop the other charges. If she hadn't pleaded guilty, she might have received a much longer prison sentence.

She was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She served her sentence at the Hinseberg women's prison in Sweden. In December 2008, the Swedish Ministry of Justice did not approve her request for an early release. She had asked for it due to her age, health, and prison conditions.

On 14 September 2009, the President of the UN's ICTY, Patrick Robinson, said that Plavšić "appears to have demonstrated substantial evidence of rehabilitation." He also noted that she had accepted responsibility for her actions. She became eligible for release on 27 October 2009, after serving two-thirds of her sentence.

She was released on 27 October 2009. On the same day, Milorad Dodik, who was the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, sent a government jet to pick her up. He welcomed her to Belgrade. Dodik said he did this for "purely moral reasons." In November 2009, Milorad Dodik mentioned that he was thinking about giving Plavšić an office in the Senate. He said they were working on changing a law to give former presidents like Plavšić some benefits. These benefits could include an office, money, a counselor, a secretary, and an official car with a driver.