Military

DATE=11/02/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BOSNIA / WAR CRIMES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-268759

BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU

DATELINE=THE HAGUE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Prosecutors at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal have finished questioning Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic about the role he may have played in the 1995 massacres at Srebrenica. The general, who is the most senior Bosnian Serb to go on trial accused of genocide, has been testifying in his own behalf, denying that he had anything to do with the worst crime of the Bosnian war - the slaughter of thousands of Muslim men and boys after the fall in early July 1995 of the UN-declared safe haven of Srebrenica. Lauren Comiteau reports from the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

TEXT: Fifty-two-year-old General Radislav Krstic has spent almost three full weeks in the witness stand. He began by giving his version of events of what happened in Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. At least 7-thousand-500-Muslim men and boys were executed, and prosecutors have charged General Krstic with genocide for commanding the troops who committed the crimes.

General Krstic's defense has always been that he was not in control during the massacres and that he was not even in Srebrenica when they occurred.

He testified under oath that Bosnian Serb military leader General Ratko Mladic took over command of his Drina Corps a few days before the massacres began, and that General Mladic was the one giving the orders throughout the entire Srebrenica operation.

General Krstic also said that even after he learned about the massacres, he did not investigate or report them because he feared General Mladic would harm him or his family.

When prosecutors began cross-examining General Krstic last week, he admitted that that was no defense - that as a commander, he was legally bound to investigate and report the crimes. But his defense suffered even more blows this week when the general started to contradict his own testimony.

Prosecutors presented him with an order that he himself issued to his troops on July 13th, 1995, telling them to search Srebrenica for Muslims. That means his Drina Corps had not left the area, as General Krstic had said, and that they were still operating in Srebrenica at the time of the massacres.

But perhaps the most incriminating evidence came Wednesday, when prosecutors presented the court with a recorded conversation between the general and one of his subordinates. This is what the court heard:

/// ACT KRSTIC, ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER ///

A pale and nervous-looking General Krstic listened as a voice said, "Krstic here, are you doing your job?" When the second voice responds that they were, the voice - which is allegedly that of General Krstic - said, "Kill every single one of them. Not a single one must be left alive." The reference was to Muslims of Srebrenica.

The tape contradicts General Krstic's earlier testimony that he had never ordered any executions. But the general denied speaking to his subordinate at all that day. He says the tape - a radio intercept, which prosecutors got from the Bosnian Muslim army - was completely fabricated. "I cannot even recognize my own voice," said General Krstic.

Prosecutors will bring in their own voice analyst later and other witnesses who they say will prove the tape's authenticity. In the meantime, General Krstic's lawyers are expected to call 25 more witnesses in his defense, which has been seriously damaged in the past few weeks. (Signed)

NEB/LC/GE/TDW