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Last updated:
Dec.29.2003.
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Gen. Radislav Krstic (Aug. 02, 2001)
On
August 2, 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
delivered its first genocide conviction, for crimes committed in the wake of the
1995 capture of Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serb Army. The UN war crimes tribunal
has found a former Bosnian Serb general guilty of genocide for his role in the
1995 murder of over 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys in Srebrenica.
Krstic, 53, was second-in-command of the Bosnian Serb army's Drina corps, which
spearheaded the attack on Srebrenica, an area that was officially under the
protection of UN troops. Radislav Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in prison,
but spared the eight life sentences demanded by prosecutors. Krstic looked tense
and shocked as Judge Rodrigues read out the verdict: "In July 1995 General
Krstic, individually you agreed to evil. And this is why today this trial
chamber convicts you and sentences you to 46 years in prison." The rulling
means massacre has been recognized as the first genocide in Europe since the
persecution of Jews during World War II.
Update
(Nov.26.2003): Prosecutors at a UN war crimes appeals court today argued that a Bosnian Serb general’s 46 year prison sentence for genocide is too lenient and should be replaced with life.
Prosecutor Mathias Marcussen said the 46-year sentence did not reflect the gravity of the crime and should be increased to life, the tribunal's maximum sentence.
Over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in Srebrenica in
what was the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since the Second World War.
Only a life sentence is appropriate "when an accused is convicted and found
guilty of 8,000 murders and the forceable transfer of 20,000 to 25,000,"
Marcussen said.
Captain Momir Nikolic (May
07, 2003)
Bosnian
Serb Army's Captain, Momir Nikolic, a deputy commander for security and intelligence of the Bratunac brigade operating in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre, was originally charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity after his arrest last year. Nikolic, 48, pleaded guilty in May to one count of crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors dropped four other charges in return for his guilty plea and his willingness to testify against his superiors for the worst atrocity against civilians since World War II.
Nikolic was the first Bosnian Serb officer to admit his involvement in the murders and acknowledge the slaughter of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave.
Nikolic accepted the facts of his indictment, which stated he had been on duty when 80 to 100 prisoners were decapitated and the headless corpses loaded on to trucks on July 12 1995. In testimony against his superiors, he said he had coordinated the separation of thousands of men from their families and arranged to take them to execution sites.
The defense had asked for a 10-year sentence, while prosecutors sought a 15-20 year sentence.
But presiding Judge Liu Dagun said that the sentence was insufficient. "Neither sentence adequately reflects the totality of the criminal conduct for which Momir Nikolic has been convicted,'' the judge told the court Tuesday.
The Srebrenica massacre was "committed with a level of brutality and depravity not seen previously in the conflict in former Yugoslavia,'' he
added. In sentencing Momir Nikolic for crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Dutch capital went beyond the call by the prosecutor for a prison term of 15 to 20 years.
On Decemer 2nd. 2003. the UN war crimes tribunal sentenced a Bosnian Serb officer who pleaded guilty to taking part in the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosniaks in Srebrenica to 27 years in jail.
Nikolic, a former teacher, ran security and intelligence operations for the Bratunac Brigade, said he was present at army meetings when plans to execute Bosniak men were openly discussed.
He told the trial of ex-army commanders Vidoje Blagojevic and Dragan Jokic in September that the Srebrenica massacre order came from the highest Bosnian Serbian political and military authorities.
Miroslav Deronjic (Sept. 30,
2003)
Miroslav Deronjic, a former official of the Radovan Karadzic's Serb Democratic Party, said that Radovan Karadzic - who is still at large and wanted for genocide - had made clear that large numbers of
civilians should die. Deronjic, who himself has been charged with crimes against humanity over a massacre of more than 60 Bosniaks in Bratunac at the start of the war in 1992, recently pleaded guilty and is now testifying in other proceedings before the UN court. Deronjic said he met Radovan Karadzic in the Bosnian Serb capital of Pale on July 8 or 9, 1995, and had a later meeting with General Ratko Mladic, the Serb military commander who is also still at
large, on July 12. The following day he received an emissary, Bosnian Serb
Army's Colonel Ljubisa Beara. Col Beara, said the witness conveyed the following message: "The goods must be in storehouses by dawn, and not here but elsewhere."
Deronjic said: "He was trying to tell me in code the gist of the instructions." However, the meaning soon became explicit. "I have instructions from the top that these people should be killed in Bratunac," Col Beara told him.
Miroslav Deronjic confessed to war crimes. He was a civilian head of the Bratunac municipality near Srebrenica when the Bosnian Serb's political leader Radovan Karadzic told him on 9 July, 1995: "Miroslav, all of them need to be killed. Whatever you can lay your hands on," he told the hearing.
Captain Dragan Obrenovic (Dec.
10, 2003)
A former Bosnian Serb army commander was jailed for 17 years by
the UN war crimes tribunal on Wednesday after confessing to his role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.
Dragan Obrenovic, Chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb Army's Zvornik Brigade, one of two former commanders to admit his role in the Europe's worst massacre since World War
II pleaded guilty at the UN court to one count of crimes against humanity the same month.
Prosecutors dropped five other counts agains him in return for his guilty plea. He has provided evidence of an effort to conceal the bodies of the Srebrenica victims. Prosecutors had recommended a 15-20 year sentence for Obrenovic.
"The trial chamber hereby sentences you to a period of 17 years' imprisonment," presiding judge Liu Daqun told Obrenovic as he stood to hear his sentence for admitting persecution on political, racial and religious grounds.
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