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The former Serbian general accepts responsibility for the genocide in Srebrenica and requests early release

2024-11-13 21:00:53Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The former Serbian general accepts responsibility for the genocide in Srebrenica
Radislav Kristić

The former general of the Republika Srpska Army, Radislav Krstić, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison by The Hague court two decades ago for aiding and abetting the genocide in Srebrenica, has accepted responsibility and expressed remorse for his participation in the genocide. .

Krstić, in a letter to the court where he asked for early release from prison, wrote that he would have voted for the United Nations Resolution on Srebrenica.

"I do not have the right to vote, because my name is mentioned in this Resolution, as I have committed an unimaginable and unforgivable criminal offense", Krstiq wrote in the letter addressed to the president of the court.

He also wrote that, if given the opportunity, he would go to Potoçar to "honor" the victims of the genocide.

In June 2024, the defense of Radislav Kristić submitted a request for his early release to the International Mechanism for Criminal Courts (the former Hague Tribunal), attaching the letter written by Kristić himself, where he requests that it be made public.

This letter was released to the media on November 13 by the Mechanism in The Hague.

The Memorial Center in Potoçari expects that former general Kërstić, after accepting responsibility for the genocide in Srebrenica, will share with the Prosecutor's Office everything he knows about war crimes, Allmasa Sallihović, spokeswoman for this center where the victims of the genocide are buried, told Radio Evropa e Lire. in Srebrenica.

Commenting on Kristić's statement, she said that the Memorial Center "welcomes the acceptance of responsibility".

Nura Begović, who lost 19 family members in the Srebrenica genocide, told Radio Free Europe that "Kristić certainly does not do this from the heart, but only to secure forgiveness".

"He would come to Potocari, it is important that he said that, but surely the families would not want to meet him," said Begović.

The case of Krstić
The Appeals Chamber of the Hague Tribunal in 2004 finally sentenced to 35 years in prison the former commander of the Drina Corps of the Army of the Republika Srpska, Radislav Krstić, finding him guilty of aiding and abetting the genocide in Srebrenica, persecution and killing of the Bosniaks of Srebrenica in July 1995.

This was the first final decision by which the Hague Tribunal found that the Republika Srpska Army committed genocide in Srebrenica. This decision reduced the sentence of 45 years of imprisonment to Kërstić, which was imposed on him in 2001 by the Chamber of the First Instance of the Tribunal.

With the first-instance decision, Krstiq was convicted of committing genocide, but the Appeals Chamber changed that part of the decision.

Kristić in the letter addressed to the president of the court stated that he accepts the decisions of the Tribunal of 2001 and 2004.

He confirmed that he knew that "some members of the General Staff intended to commit genocide", but that that staff "did not have sufficient forces to carry out the executions" without "the use of the Drina Corps", which Krstić commanded at the time .

"I knew that the use of forces under my command would contribute significantly to the execution of Bosnian prisoners," Krstić wrote in the letter.

He has also confirmed that he aided and abetted the crime against humanity by participating in a joint criminal enterprise for the forcible displacement of Bosniak civilians from Potočari from 10 to 13 July 1995.

"I participated in the creation of a humanitarian crisis that preceded the forced displacement of women, children and the elderly from Srebrenica, in which I also participated, knowing that civilians in Potoçari were exposed to murder, rape, beatings and abuses", Kristiq wrote.

He added that the genocide in Srebrenica was carried out by individuals and that they must answer for their deeds and crimes, adding that "unfortunately I am one of them".

Krstiq has also stated that he is writing to the public in the former Yugoslavia.

"I would like my words to be read and understood by young people who today live in the spaces where there used to be a country called Yugoslavia (...), to stop and think - never again. Never again war, never again death because of religion, nation or different beliefs, never more genocide", wrote Kërstić.

Radislav Krstić was arrested by international forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 2 December 1998. After the final verdict, he was sent to Great Britain in 2004 to serve his sentence.

In a British prison, he was attacked and injured by other prisoners, for which in 2013 he was transferred to Poland.

After serving two-thirds of his sentence, the Polish authorities, according to the law there, could no longer keep him in prison, so Krstić was returned to custody in The Hague, where he is currently.

Several times before, the court has rejected his request for early release due to the importance of the crime for which he was convicted.

The decision on the new request will be made by the president of the court Graciela Gatti Santana.

Republika Srpska Army forces killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995.

For these crimes, some courts have sentenced more than 50 people to over 700 years in prison for genocide and war crimes in Srebrenica.

Among them are the former president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, and the commander-in-chief of the then Serbian army, Ratko Mladić. Both have been sentenced to life imprisonment. / REL


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