The International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague has convicted five Bosnian Croat soldiers accused of taking part in one of the most notorious massacres of Muslims in the Bosnian war.

The five defendants were sentenced to between six and 25 years imprisonment for charges including murder, crimes against humanity and persecution.

Vladimir Santic and Drago Josipovic were found guilty of murder during the massacre, which took place in Ahmici in central Bosnia in 1993.

More than 100 civilians were killed, all of them Muslims, including more than 30 women and children.

Santic - commander of a local military police battalion and of a group known as the "Jokers" - passed on orders from his superiors to eradicate Muslims in the village.

Brothers Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic and their cousin Vlatko Kupreskic were found guilty of persecution, and received sentences of up to 10 years.

A sixth man, Dragan Papic, was released because Judge Antonio Cassese said the evidence could not prove his guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt".

All the defendants had denied the charges against them.

Local men

The defendants were all rank-and-file members of the Bosnian Croat militia, but the court heard that some were from the town they were accused of attacking.

The Kupreskic family were described by Muslim survivors from Ahmici as "decent people" until fighting broke out in the village.

The commander of Croatian forces in the area has already been tried by the Tribunal but no date has been given for the announcement of a verdict.

Vicious inhumanity

The massacre was described by prosecutors as a highly co-ordinated ethnic cleansing operation unique in its savagery.

During the attack on the village, Bosnian Croat soldiers with black-painted faces machine-gunned whole families of the unarmed residents, and their homes were looted and set on fire.

"What happened on 16 April 1993 has gone down in history as comprising one of the most vicious illustrations of man's inhumanity to man," Judge Cassese said.

The British UN troops who went to the village after the attack found that all 172 Muslim houses had been burned to the ground, while not a single Croatian home had been touched.

Their commander, Colonel Bob Stewart, helped to gather evidence for war crimes investigators.

This is an important case for the War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. More than 30 indicted suspects remain at large and of those who have been brought to court, only eight had been found guilty before this case.

The tribunals have cost nearly $300m over the past seven years. The court heard 158 witnesses during 16 months of hearings.