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Bosnian Serb General Convicted of Genocide
THE HAGUE, Aug 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic was convicted of genocide by the U.N. war crimes tribunal Thursday and sentenced to 46 years in jail for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.
The verdict marked the first time the tribunal has convicted anyone of genocide - defined by the tribunal's statutes as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" - for atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia.
Prosecutors described the Srebrenica massacre as the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, and the 53-year-old Krstic had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
"In July 1995, General Krstic, you personally agreed to evil," Judge Almiro Rodrigues said.
"You are guilty of the murder of thousands of Bosnian Muslims... You are guilty, General Krstic, of genocide.
"This is why the trial chamber convicts you today and sentences you to 46 years in prison."
The Srebrenica enclave - a so-called U.N. safe haven - was overrun on July 11, 1995, by Bosnian Serbs, who then rounded up Muslim men of fighting age, loaded them into trucks, transported them to remote locations and summarily executed them.
Some 7,475 Muslim men were reported missing, and were presumed killed in the attack and ensuing massacres, according to figures from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Krstic, who is married with one daughter, was deputy commander of the Drina Corps, which led the assault.
Rodrigues found Krstic guilty of "having agreed to a plan for the mass execution of all [Muslim] men of fighting age" in Srebrenica.
He also found the general guilty of causing the "incredible suffering of Bosnian Muslims" by forcibly transferring from the enclave thousands of women, children and old people.
The general, who lost a leg when he stepped on a landmine in 1994, remained seated during judgment, showing signs of nervousness, often blinking his eyes and swallowing.
The officer remained passive when sentence was read.
Rodrigues also found Krstic guilty of murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ITN News said that although the sentence was the longest delivered yet by the tribunal in its Balkan war convictions, it still fell short of the eight consecutive life sentences that the prosecution had demanded.
The case is considered to be the most important trial to have come before the ICTY since its creation in 1993, due to Krstic's rank and the extent of the killing in Srebrenica.
During 94 sessions since the trial began in March 2000 - summations having been heard last June - 102 prosecution and 12 defense witnesses were brought before the court, but Krstic's health problems due to his amputated leg caused delays throughout, the Washington Post reported.
Krstic is the second general linked with the massacres to be tried by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
In March, Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic was sentenced to 45 years in jail by the ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity on charges of sanctioning and organizing systematic attacks against Muslims in central Bosnia's Lasva Vally between 1992 and 1994.
Prosecutors presented the court with evidence they said showed mass execution sites in Krstic's area of responsibility, established through statements from survivors.
Their heartrending testimony told of what the world now calls the killing fields of Srebrenica, the Post said. Many recalled lying among bleeding corpses, listening to the Serb soldiers fire automatic weapon rounds over and over again into lines of prisoners, the Post said.
To back up witness statements, prosecutor Mark Harmon showed the court aerial photographs of the sites before and after the mass killings, showing large mounds of disturbed earth where he said victims were buried in trenches.
Prosecutors said many of the mass burial sites had been disturbed and that bodies had been transferred to different gravesites in an effort to conceal evidence.
The court saw pictures of unearthed corpses with blindfolds still in place and hands bound, some of over 2,000 corpses so far exhumed by ICTY investigators in the Srebrenica area.
In his summary judgment, Rodrigues spoke of the living horror of Srebrenica - "a name for a post-traumatic syndrome" that demands continued vigilance in seeking justice for the crimes committed there.
He referred to the survivors as "thousands of amputated lives six years later, robbed of the affection and love of their kin now reduced to ghosts who return to haunt them day after day, night after night."
Rodrigues vividly described the images that the name "Srebrenica" evokes - "women, children and old people forced to climb into buses leaving for destinations unknown… men who would be found - but not always - dead, corpses piled up in mass graves; corpses with their hands tied or their eyes blind-folded - frequently; dismembered corpses as well; unidentified corpses… corpses."
Bodies of victims are still being recovered to this day. A mass grave containing more than 200 bodies of Muslims believed killed after Srebrenica fell was unearthed last month in eastern Bosnia.
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