DATE=7/27/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YUGOSLAV WAR CRIMES / KRSTIC
NUMBER=5-46736
BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU
DATELINE=THE HAGUE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: PROSECUTION PHASE OF KRSTIC TRIAL IS
EXPECTED TO END BY FRIDAY, BUT IT MAY CONTINUE INTO
NEXT WEEK; WATCH CN WIRE FOR TRIAL STATUS ///
INTRO: Prosecutors at the Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal are expected to finish presenting their case
[EDS: by Friday, but could continue until early next
week; watch CN wire for details] against General
Radislav Krstic. The most senior Bosnian Serb to go
on trial, General Krstic is accused of directing the
worst crime of the Bosnian war: the slaughter of
thousands of Muslim men and boys after the fall of the
United Nations-declared safe haven of Srebrenica, in
1995. Lauren Comiteau has been following the trial and
files this report from The Hague.
TEXT: Prosecutors have spent 11 weeks presenting
evidence which they say will prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that General Radislav Krstic committed genocide.
Five years after the Bosnian Serb army overran what
was supposed to be a safe area for Muslims fleeing the
fighting in eastern Bosnia, there are still some
seven-thousand-500 Muslim men and boys missing and
presumed dead.
Prosecutors say it was General Krstic's troops who
killed them. They systematically separated the men
from the women and children, took them to warehouses
and fields, lined them up, and shot them. They were
then buried in mass graves. Months later, their
remains were disturbed -- clumsily dug-up and re-
buried in different mass graves -- an attempt by the
Bosnian Serb leadership, say prosecutors, to hide
their crimes.
/// SFX: WITNESS D-D CRYING-ESTABLISH & FADE ///
This woman, identified to the public only as Witness
D-D, has not seen her husband or two of her three sons
since July, 1995. She stood by helplessly as the
younger son, 14 years old at the time, was snatched
from her arms by Bosnian Serb soldiers. He asked her
to get his bag. And that, she says, was the last time
she heard his voice.
/// WITNESS D-D ACT IN SERBO-CROATIAN-IN & FADE ///
"I keep dreaming of him," Witness D-D told the judge.
"He comes to me carrying flowers. I embrace him and
ask, `Where have you been, son?' If the General knows
anything about him -- if there's any hope he's alive,
please," she begs the judges, "find out."
Witness D-D is one of several survivors who testified
about what happened in Srebrenica. It is part of the
prosecution's strategy to prove that the crimes
committed were on such a large scale that they had to
be well planned and organized.
There was other testimony, from Dutch United Nations
soldiers who were supposed to be protecting the
enclave, and from forensics experts who reconstructed
the crimes in painstaking detail. There were aerial
photographs of mass graves and video footage of
General Krstic in Srebrenica.
But perhaps the most incriminating evidence is the
intercepted conversations between Bosnian Serb
officers. In one of them, General Krstic is named as
being in charge. Another general, Britain's Richard
Dennitt, was called by prosecutors to analyze those
intercepts and explain the command structure of the
Bosnian Serb army. He was questioned by Judge Almio
Rodrigues, who spoke through a translator.
/// RODRIGUES/INTERPRETER & DENNITT ACT ///
[Rodrigues] General, was it possible to plan,
organize and to execute all of these
operations without the knowledge and
participation of General Krstic?
[Dennitt] No. I have to say that, because I go
back, Your Honor, to one of my points of
yesterday that command is a personal
thing and the commander must take--does
take--personal responsibility for all
that goes on in his zone of
responsibility.
/// END ACT ///
In the end, that's exactly what this case will hinge
on: whether prosecutors have sufficiently proved that
General Krstic was in command and thereby legally
responsible for the crimes of his soldiers.
Prosecutors say as chief of staff of the Drina Corps,
promoted to commander during the Srebrenica offensive,
Krstic was in command. It is an argument rejected by
Tomislav Visnjic, one of the general's defense
lawyers.
/// VISNJIC ACT IN SERBO-CROATIAN--ESTABLISH, FADE ///
Tomislav Visnjic says his client has
no connection with any criminal acts that took place
in Srebrenica. He says the intercepts are unreliable,
and that General Krstic was not even in Srebrenica at
the time of the attacks.
But proving that, says journalist Julija Bogoeva, will
be an uphill battle. She has been covering the war
crimes tribunal for Beta, the independent Belgrade-
based news agency. Ms. Bogoeva says the evidence
against the General very strong, and the defense faces
serious problems in presenting its case.
/// BOGOEVA ACT ///
The defense will certainly have a hard time.
The witnesses it may wish to call may not wish
to appear before the Tribunal because they may
be indicted in the future, and because also it
[the defense] has not had any substantial
assistance from the authorities in the Republika
Srpska [the Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina]
or in Belgrade with their case.
/// END ACT ///
That is because many of those authorities--both in the
Bosnian Serb Republic and in Serbia--remain loyal to
their past or present leaders. Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic has himself been indicted for war
crimes. So has the former leader of the Bosnian
Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander,
General Ratko Mladic, who was General Krstic's direct
superior. A Krstic conviction would not bode well for
either of those men, should they ever be brought to
trial. General Krstic's defense lawyers, meanwhile,
will begin presenting what evidence they do have in
October. (Signed)
NEB/LC/GE/WTW
27-Jul-2000 07:50 AM EDT (27-Jul-2000 1150 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
