Global Policy Forum

Paul Gallagher

Judges at The Hague war crimes tribunal cut a Bosnian Serb general's jail sentence for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre by 11 years Monday after reducing his genocide conviction to one of aiding and abetting. The U.N. court cut Radislav Krstic's sentence to 35 years from 46 years after ruling he was not directly responsible for perpetrating genocide in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. Up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered after the U.N.'s so-called "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia fell to Serb forces in July 1995. The grisly killings became one of the most notorious episodes of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Krstic, who lost a leg in a mine explosion and commanded the Bosnian Serb army's Drina Corps in 1995, was found guilty of genocide at The Hague in a landmark verdict in August 2001. He was the first person convicted of genocide by the court. But the court's appeals chamber set aside Krstic's conviction as "a participant in a joint criminal enterprise to commit genocide" and found the 56-year-old guilty of the lesser charge of aiding and abetting genocide.

The judges stressed in their lengthy ruling that genocide had taken place at Srebrenica, but said the lower trial court had not proved Krstic possessed genocidal intent when convicting him of direct participation. "Conviction for genocide can be entered only where that intent has been unequivocally established. There was a demonstrable failure by the trial chamber to supply adequate proof that Radislav Krstic possessed genocidal intent," the court said.

LACKING GENOCIDAL INTENT

"While Radislav Krstic's crime is undoubtedly grave, the finding that he lacked genocidal intent significantly diminishes his responsibility," the court said. Prosecution and defense both lodged appeals after the trial. Prosecutors had called Krstic's original 46 year jail sentence "manifestly inadequate" and asked for a life sentence. Krstic's lawyers appealed against both his conviction and sentence.

In Bosnia, there was strong reaction to the appeals judgment. "He should have gotten a life sentence," said Sabra Kolenovic, who lost 28 family members in the Srebrenica massacre. Up to 15,000 Muslim men and boys tried to flee the Serb forces, but many were captured and killed. Many of the men who stayed were separated from women and children and bussed away to be shot. Others were decapitated on the spot.

Krstic, who pleaded not guilty after being seized by NATO troops in December 1998, is one of the most senior military figures to be tried and convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Krstic reported to military commander Ratko Mladic, who along with Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic is charged by U.N. prosecutors with genocide in Srebrenica. Mladic and Karadzic are the tribunal's most wanted men.

Genocide is also on the charge sheet against former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been on trial in The Hague since February 2002 for war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Milosevic does not recognize the court and has dismissed the charges against him as false. He is due to open his defense in June.