Madam War Criminal

A tale of violent terror and chilling unrepentance, from the only woman convicted of crimes against humanity in the Bosnian War.

In 2001, Biljana Plavšić made history: she became the only female political leader ever prosecuted for mass atrocities. She was the one woman among 161 indictees at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia--and the first since Nuremberg to be convicted by an international court.

Charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, Plavšić took a plea bargain. Just one other Bosnian Serb politician at her level was sentenced: Radovan Karadžić himself, President to Plavšić's Vice-President in the autonomous Republika Srpska. Yet before the conflict, Plavšić had been a globally renowned scientist at the University of Sarajevo, penning journal articles and serving as faculty dean.

This gripping book revolves around hundreds of hours of interviews with a stridently unrepentant war criminal--now in her 90s, and a free woman. How did this biology professor end up heading a vengeful ethno-nationalist movement that murdered tens of thousands?