Global Policy Forum

The UN war crimes court ruled that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was genocide, a historic decision that could determine the fate of others on trial here including former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. But in a move that sparked outrage among relatives of the Srebrenica dead, the appeals chamber of The Hague-based court overturned the conviction of a Bosnian Serb general who led troops into the UN-protected enclave where more than 7,000 Muslim boys and men were killed. Instead, Radislav Krstic, who in 2001 became the first man found guilty of genocide over the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, saw his conviction reduced to aiding and abbetting the genocide.

"The appeals chamber... calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide. Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the comssion of such a heinous act," said presiding judge Theodor Meron. Krstic -- described in the 2001 verdict as a man who had "personally agreed to evil" -- was twitching nervously as the verdict was read out but appeared relieved when the court said his sentence had been reduced. "The trial chamber... sets aside Radislav Krstic's conviction as a participant in a joint criminal enterprise to commit genocide and finds (him) guilty of aiding and abetting genocide," Meron said.

More than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were killed on July 11, 1995 within weeks of the capture of the eastern Bosnian town by Bosnian Serb troops led by Krstic and fugitive Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic. Both Mladic and his wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who also remains at large despite several attempts to catch him, are both charged with genocide for the massacre and the campaign of ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs during the war. Krstic, 56, had sought to overturn his conviction by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), arguing that the number of victims was "too insignificant" to be considered genocide. However, the court said the fate of the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica "would be emblematic of that of all Bosnian Muslims".

Nine years after the end of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia which claimed the lives of 200,000 people, Srebrenica remains a synonym for genocide and a stain on the reputation of the United Nations, whose peacekeeping forces failed to prevent the slaughter. Monday's decision will have implications for others on trial for war crimes during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia, including Milosevic who faces a charge of genocide for the Bosnian war among more than 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humantiy. The ruling will also have a broader impact on international justice and the definition of genocide.

The 1948 Geneva Convention defines genocide as "acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The appeal chamber's ruling confirms a wider legal definition because it ruled that the killing of only the men of an ethnic group in a local comminity can be ruled a genocide if the intent was to kill all the members of the group, legal experts say. "The court has ruled that the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army had the intent to kill all Bosnian Muslims with the killing of the men because they knew that the chances of survival for the group would be minimal without the men," said Heikelina Verrijn Stuart, an international law expert.

In Monday's ruling, the court found that there was no evidence that Krstic ordered the killings or directly participated in them. "All the evidence establishes is that he knew that those murders were occurring and that he permitted (the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army) to use personnel and resources under his command to facilitate them," the court said. Relatives of Srebrenica victims welcomed the genocide ruling but reacted with disbelief at the reduced sentence for Krstic.

"I thank God for that ruling. It brings relief to us. The court has finally confirmed what all of us knew: Srebrenica was genocide," said Kada Hotic of the Association of Srebrenica Mothers. But of Krstic, she said: "I cannot understand that ruling if the purpose of The Hague tribunal is also to send a message and to prevent future evils. This is not the way you prevent atrocities from occurring in the future."