THE HAGUE, March 13 (AFP) - A Serb general faces a life sentence for masterminding the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, branded Europe's worst atrocity since World War II by war crimes prosecutors Monday.
Radislav Krstic, 52, went on trial before the international war crimes tribunal charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated at the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia.
“This is the story of the triumph of evil,” U.N. prosecutor Mark Harmon announced before the court. “During five days, thousands of Bosnian Muslim civilians were systematically murdered” in the worst slaughter of the 1991-1995 conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Harmon added.
Aside from the horror of the mass killings, Srebrenica became a byword for the failure of U.N. peacekeeping efforts after 150 Dutch troops stationed in the enclave were easily overwhelmed by Bosnian Serb units.
A soul-searching report by Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was in charge of peacekeeping operations at the time of the massacre, last year acknowledged the U.N.'s inglorious role in failing “to prevent the unfolding horror.”
“The 150 fighting men of the Dutch battalion were lightly armed and in indefensible positions, and were faced with 2,000 Serbs advancing with the support of armor and artillery,” it said.
The U.N. report concluded “the tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever.” The grey-haired General Krstic, promoted to commander of the Bosnian Serb army's Drina Corps after the fall of the town, is the first defendant to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in connection with the Srebrenica massacre.
He “committed, planned, instigated, ordered, or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation, or execution of a crime against humanity,” according to the indictment.
His superior, General Ratko Mladic, and the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, are the principal accused in the case. The key role in the Srebrenica massacre played by Mladic and Karadzic, still at large despite international arrest warrants, is expected to figure prominently throughout Krstic's trial.
In the five years since the massacre, at least 2,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves, many with hands tied behind their backs, and more than 7,000 Muslims are still listed as missing, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Harmon said Krstic and Bosnian Serb troops under his command had "systematically attempted to hide the traces of their crimes.”
After the fall of the UN's “safe area” in Srebrenica, he added, “the victors abandoned all semblance of humanity and committed atrocities of a type and on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.” The massacre had “shadowed the lives of generations of Bosnian people,” the U.N. prosecutor said.
Tall and haggard, Krstic showed no emotion as Harmon read out the charges, which included “the transfer and deportation of between 20,000 and 30,000 Muslim Bosnians from the Srebrenica enclave” and “systematic, organized mass murders between July 11 and July 15, 1995”.
“The evidence that these large-scale murders exist is overwhelming,” Harmon said. “At least 7,574 people are missing and presumed dead.”
Krstic, who lost a leg in a landmine explosion in 1994, has already pleaded not guilty to the two charges of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and one of war crimes. But if found guilty, he could a receive a maximum life sentence.
The Bosnian Serb army launched its assault on Srebrenica on July 6, 1995, quickly brushing aside the Dutch U.N. peacekeepers and overrunning the enclave. Air support had been denied to the peacekeepers because of U.N. fears the Serbs might take the soldiers hostage. The Dutch sealed their compound on July 10 after 5,000 locals crowded inside, though tens of thousands more were unable to get in. Most of the men killed were apparently seized and murdered while fleeing by night to the town of Tuzla, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, through Serb-held mountains.
Their bodies were left to rot for over a year before the U.N. was given access to the area.
Peacekeepers were nevertheless held responsible by the U.N. report for handing over 239 Bosnian Muslim men to the Serbs who promised to respect the Geneva conventions. None of the men have since been found.
Special court investigator Jean-Rene Ruez – the trial’s first witness on Monday – declared that the Serbs also fooled fleeing Muslims by stealing U.N. equipment and dressing in the trademark blue helmets.
Harmon, meanwhile, said Krstic, held since his arrest in December 1998 by the NATO-led SFOR stabilization force in Bosnia, “was fully aware of his obligations under international law. However, he chose to violate all his obligations”.
Karadzic himself claimed on Serbian television in 1995 that Krstic had planned the attack at Srebrenica. “We have made a legend out of Mladic, but we also have other generals to show off, like General Radislav Krstic, who planned the action that I authorized on Srebrenica and did it in an exceptional manner,” Karadzic told viewers.
