Photos ; Bosnian Croat officials meet their flaw in the hague

For over 400 years the Old Bridge in Mostar united the east and west of the city.For centuries, the men of Mostar competed in jumping and diving off the bridge as part of the local tradition.

The bridge has always been the symbol of Herzegova region's Mostar, the most multi-ethnic city in former Yugoslavia.

But on November 9, 1993, the unthinkable happened. After Croatian military forces had fired more than 60 projectiles at the bridge, the old stones finally gave way and collapsed into the deep Neretva River. Residents were in shock.

On Wednesday the appeals chamber at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague upheld its first-instance verdict and sentenced six former Bosnian Croat military and political officials to 111 years in prison.Croatia's then defence minister Gojko Susak and former Croatian chief of general staff, Janko Bobetko, also participated in the JCE.

Croatia led the JCE with the goal of creating a Croatian entity known as Herzeg-Bosnia, the tribunal found.

The tribunal further confirmed Croatia's role in the conflict, ruling that Croatia held authority in municipalities in Herzeg-Bosnia by controlling the Bosnian Croat armed forces, the "Croatian Defence Council" (HVO).

Croatia held eight municipalities in the statelet "under occupation"

The Old Bridge, built by the Ottomans in the 16th century, is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most recognisable landmarks, and is considered one of the most exemplary pieces of Islamic architecture in the Balkans.

"I was shocked when the Old Bridge was destroyed, and now I went through shock again when the representatives of an international court accepted this from the HVO, from the people convicted that the bridge was of military character, that it was used as a crossing for soldiers, transferring of munitions, etc.," Balic said..