( CNN ) -- A U.N. tribunal convicted two Serb cousins Monday of having burned alive more than 100 Muslims in what the presiding judge called a part of the `` wretched history of man 's inhumanity to man . '' Serb Milan Lukic has been found guilty of burning alive more than 100 Muslims . Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic were convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s , during the bitter ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia . Milan Lukic organized a group of local paramilitaries with ties to police and the military , sometimes referred to as the `` White Eagles '' or `` Avengers , '' according to an indictment . Before and during the war , his cousin Sredoje Lukic worked as a policeman before joining the group . The crimes include two incidents in which Muslim men , women and children were forced into homes that were then set on fire -- and some who tried to escape were shot . Milan Lukic was found `` guilty of persecutions , murder , extermination , cruel treatment and inhumane acts , as crimes against humanity and war crimes , in relation to six discrete incidents , '' the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ( ICTY ) at the Hague said . He was sentenced to life in prison . Sredoje Lukic was found guilty of `` aiding and abetting the commission of the crime of persecutions inhumane acts , murder and cruel treatment . '' He was sentenced to 30 years in prison . Their crimes were committed during the 1990s . Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992 and Radovan Karadzic declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic . The Bosnian Serbs , backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces , quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo , the capital . During the conflict that followed , the Serb forces launched what they called the `` ethnic cleansing '' of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats . The cousins ' cases are a small part of the caseload the Tribunal has dealt with regarding violations of humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001 . Since its creation the Tribunal has indicted 161 people on charges of serious violations of humanitarian law . The court found Milan Lukic responsible for the murder of 59 Muslim women , children and elderly men in a house in the town of Visegrad . `` On 14 June 1992 , the victims were locked into one room of the house which was then set on fire , '' the tribunal wrote . `` Milan Lukic was found to have placed the explosive device into the room , which set the house ablaze . Milan Lukic shot at people trying to escape from the burning house . '' Sredoje Lukic `` knew what would happen to the victims that he helped herd '' into the home , the court wrote in its judgment . Milan Lukic was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians in another house in Visegrad later that same month . The court found that he and others `` forced the civilians inside the house , blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol , setting the house on fire . '' In all , the court found that Milan Lukic `` personally killed at least 132 Muslim people . '' The defense for both men denied the accusations against them , but the evidence demonstrated their guilt , the court said in its judgment . `` The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life , '' presiding judge Patrick Robinson said . `` In the all too long , sad and wretched history of man 's inhumanity to man , the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high . `` At the close of the twentieth century , a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale , these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack , for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it , for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding , trapping and locking the victims in the two houses , thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno , and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive . ''
U.N. tribunal convicts Serb cousins of burning alive more than 100 Muslims . Milan Lukic , Sredoje Lukic convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s . Muslim men , women and children forced into homes that were then set on fire .