DATE=3/10/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YUGOSLAV WAR CRIMES TRIAL
NUMBER=5-45615
BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU
DATELINE=THE HAGUE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: On Monday morning, a top military leader goes
on trial at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. Bosnian
Serb General Radislav Krstic is charged with genocide
for commanding the execution of thousands of Muslims
after the fall of the United Nations-declared safe
area of Srebrenica in 1995. Lauren Comiteau has more
from The Hague on what is likely to be the tribunal's
most highly-publicized trial to date.
TEXT: Srebrenica. The name of this town once known
for its silver mines has become almost synonymous with
slaughter. It was the scene of the worst massacres in
Europe since the Holocaust.
Five years ago, Bosnian Serbs overran the enclave in
eastern Bosnia, which the United Nations had declared
a safe haven. Thousands of Muslim men and boys were
killed over the course of 5 days. Now for the first
time, prosecutors say they have someone in a position
of power to answer for those crimes.
/// ACT: READING OF INDICTMENT, DEFENDANT
ANSWERS THROUGH INTERPRETER ///
The prosecutor of the international criminal
tribunal for the former Yugoslavia charges
Radislav Krstic with genocide, crimes against
humanity, and violations of the laws and customs
of war. Do you plead guilty or not guilty?
[Serbian] I plead not guilty.
/// END ACT ///
General Radislav Krstic was arrested by NATO-led
troops in Bosnia more than a year ago. Prosecutors
have charged him with genocide, extermination and
deportation -- all crimes the general has pled not
guilty to. But prosecutors say General Krstic was
promoted to commander of the Drina Corps during the
massacres, and it was his troops who helped eliminate
the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica.
According to court documents, defense lawyers will
argue that the general and his troops were not in
Srebrenica during the massacres, and he did not take
up his command until after the slaughter.
But prosecutors say they have placed General Krstic at
the scene of the crimes, when men were separated from
women and children, loaded onto buses, taken to
warehouses, fields, schools and cultural centers, then
executed and buried in mass graves. They say General
Krstic reported directly to the Bosnian Serb military
commander, General Ratko Mladic.
/// ACT: TV SOUNDTRACK WITH GENERAL MLADIC CALLING TO
KRSTIC, "COME ON, KRSTIC" -- ESTABLISH AND FADE ///
Footage from Bosnian Serb television shows General
Mladic entering Srebrenica on July 11th, 1995,
accompanied by General Krstic. It is evidence like
this that could help prosecutors prove that General
Krstic was in a position of authority and could have
prevented the crimes.
Prosecution spokesman Paul Risley says the case
against General Krstic will focus largely on proving
that he commanded the troops that committed the
slaughter. Most accounts of the events at Srebrenica
say about eight-thousand men are still missing and
presumed dead. Prosecutors have never given their own
figures, but that should change, says Paul Risley, at
the General's trial.
/// RISLEY ACT ///
I can certainly tell you that the magnitude of
the forensic evidence is certainly the same as
the journalistic reporting that occurred five
years ago, when these massacres occurred. We
will be able to place precise numbers and very
clear photographic and forensic evidence of the
nature of the crimes committed and -- perhaps
just as importantly -- the very clear and
deliberate efforts to cover up those crimes that
were undertaken by the Bosnian Serb military in
the years that followed the massacre.
/// END ACT ///
The case for a cover-up will include evidence that the
firwst mass graves were dug up, and remains moved to
secondary sites. Investigators have been excavating
gravesites since 1996; General Krstic's trial will be
the first time prosecutors reveal the number of bodies
they have found.
There are many other questions that people watching
this trial are hoping the evidence will answer. The
women of Srebrenica are still waiting for word of what
happened to their husbands and sons. The Dutch, too,
are following this trial closely. It was Dutch
peacekeepers stationed in Srebrenica who did not -- or
could not -- stop the crimes, sparking years of
internal debate and investigations into their own role
in the Srebrenica slaughter.
Marjolijn de Cocq is editor of foreign news at the
Netherlands press association. She says Srebrenica
has become a stain on the soul of the Dutch, who see
this trial as partly their own.
/// DE COCQ ACT ///
It's about, will there be new evidence that kind
of absolves the Dutch that they are not guilty
of what happened there? Or is there evidence
that shows the Dutch are guilty, that they
should have intervened, they should have done
something to prevent the massacre that happened
there?
/// END ACT ///
The Dutch are currently conducting their own
investigations into what happened at Srebrenica.
The United Nations has also tried to answer some of
these questions. In a report released last year, the
organization said the tragedy occurred, in part,
because its own officials failed to recognize the
scope of evil facing Srebrenica's Muslims from Serb
forces. But this is the first time a criminal court
is charging one high-ranking individual with
responsibility for the crimes, and all eyes are
watching and waiting to see the evidence. Those
watching include, no doubt, Radovan Karadzic, the
former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and his top
general, Ratko Mladic. They also have been charged
with genocide for the crimes at Srebrenica. And
prosecutors insist that they, too, will one day end up
in The Hague, facing the same war crimes tribunal as
General Radislav Krstic. (Signed)
NEB/LC/GE/WTW
10-Mar-2000 12:56 PM EDT (10-Mar-2000 1756 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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