The United Nations' war crimes tribunal has sentenced the former chief of staff of the Serbian army to 27 years in prison on charges relating to the war between Bosnia and Croatia after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

The tribunal at The Hague convicted ex-General Momcilo Perisic on charges of crimes against humanity, due to his support of rebel Serbs fighting in Bosnia and Croatia during the siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995, as well as the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in 1995.

But the judges acquitted Perisic of charges that he was directly responsible for the atrocities carried out by Bosnian Serb army forces.