ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) A court in Croatia has convicted two former Serb rebel fighters for war crimes and sentenced both to 12 years in prison for raping a 20-year-old Croat woman during the 1991 war.
The court in the eastern town of Osijek said Wednesday that the two broke into the home of a Croat family during the war, harassed the family members and made them watch as they raped the young woman.
Judge Zvonko Vekic says the men showed "cruelty, insensitivity and ruthlessness" in committing the crime.
The war in Croatia erupted when the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia, triggering a rebellion by minority Serbs who formed a mini-state and expelled non-Serbs.
About 10,000 people died in the conflict before Croatia retook the Serb-held territories in a 1995 offensive.
