Balkan war criminals are welcomed back to public life, to the alarm of rights groups

Jailed for committing atrocities in the conflict-riven 1990s, Balkan war criminals are being welcomed back to the limelight, resuming political posts, advising top officials and preaching in church.

Two decades after the bloodshed that tore apart communist Yugoslavia, the men convicted for their destructive roles are increasingly present in public life, especially in Serbia, where many of them remain popular.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in January received Momcilo Krajisnik, a wartime Bosnian Serb leader who was released after serving two thirds of a 20-year jail sentence handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague.

Krajisnik, convicted of crimes against humanity including the deportation and persecution of non-Serbs, discussed with the president “the protection of Serb people’s rights in the region,” according to a statement from Nikolic’s office.

The meeting came nearly four years after several thousand well-wishers lined the streets of Krajisnik’s Bosnian hometown Pale to welcome him back from prison.

Like other regional war criminals upon release, he was flown by government helicopter.