Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Bosnian Serb guilty of genocide |
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| bhaloo |
| 08/02/01 at 11:18:42 |
| slm http://www.msnbc.com/news/608478.asp?pne=msn Bosnian Serb guilty of genocide Tribunal sentences general to 46 years for Srebrenica massacre Former Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic puts on his headphones to listen to translations of his sentencing in The Hague on Thursday. MSNBC NEWS SERVICES THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Aug. 2 — Six years after execution squads gunned down thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica, the U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted a top Bosnian Serb general of genocide on Thursday. The ruling was the first conviction for genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. See our special report on Milosevic's reign of terror. THE CONVICTION of Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic on Thursday marked the first genocide verdict in Europe since those following the persecution of Jews during World War II. It was also the first time the tribunal has ruled that genocide was committed in the Bosnian war. Krstic was charged with leading a weeklong campaign that left at least 8,000 men and boys dead or missing. He told the court he knew of the mass killings, but was unable to stop them. He pleaded innocent to genocide, murder, persecution and other charges. However, prosecutors maintained that Krstic was deputy commander of the Bosnian Serb troops that carried out the Srebrenica massacre. The court ruled that Krstic’s organization of the forces that carried out killings made him individually responsible for crimes committed by them. “You were there, Gen. Krstic,” said Judge Almiro Rodrigues, who also read out the general’s sentence. “You were guilty of the murder of thousands of Bosnians Muslims. In July 1995 ... you agreed to evil. This is why the trial chamber convicts you today and sentences you to 46 years in prison.” Advertisement The sentence was the longest delivered yet by the tribunal in any of the convictions it has handed down for the Balkan wars. But it fell short of the eight consecutive life sentences sought by the prosecution. The tribunal’s statutes defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Those acts include murder, inflicting living conditions designed to eliminate a group, preventing births or transferring children from one group to another. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Screbrenica massacre in July 1995. Forensic experts are still uncovering and identifying victims. HIGH-RANKING OFFICER Krstic, the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb military officer tried by the court, was charged with superior authority for planning and implementing a policy of persecution and murder that virtually wiped out the entire non-Serb population in the predominantly Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in southeastern Bosnia. In July 1995, Serb forces attacked the U.N.-declared “safe haven” where about 30,000 Muslims had sought refuge from the Serb onslaught at a Dutch-manned U.N. base. Exhumations of mass graves conducted by investigators in Bosnia, some as recent as last month, have revealed the bodies of more than 4,000 victims. Women and children were separated from the males, who were loaded onto buses and taken to collection stations throughout the region. Dozens of survivors testified about what became known as the killing fields of Srebrenica. Several witnesses told how they lay in a field of bleeding corpses for hours as Serb soldiers discharged round after round of automatic weapon fire into columns of prisoners. Click on a question for more information. What is the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia? The tribunal has the power to prosecute people for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991. Cases are tried at The Hague in the Netherlands. What kind of cases does the tribunal hear? Crimes involving grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of Aug. 12, 1949. These breaches include wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; compelling a prisoner of war or a civilian to serve in the forces of a hostile power; wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or a civilian of the rights of fair and regular trial; unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a civilian; taking civilians as hostages. Who selects the judges? The U.N. General Assembly elects 14 judges to the tribunal. The judges are elected to four year terms and can be re-elected. Three judges serve in each of the three trial chambers; five judges serve in the appeals chamber. Judges rotate on a regular basis between the trial chambers and the appeals chamber. Who selects the prosecutor? The U.N. Security Council. The prosecutor serves a four-year term and is eligible for reappointment. What kind of penalties can the tribunal impose? By a majority decision, the tribunal can send someone to prison and order the return of any property and proceeds acquired by criminal conduct to their rightful owners. Imprisonment is served in a state designated by the tribunal from a list of states that have indicated to the Security Council their willingness to accept convicted people. Can the decision be appealed? Yes. The tribunal's appeal chamber may affirm, reverse or revise the decisions taken by the trial judges. Source: ICTY Public Information Unit Printable version MLADIC NAMED IN TESTIMONY During his defense, Krstic told the court that his immediate superior, Gen. Ratko Mladic, took control of the forces that overran the enclave just days before the killings. Krstic said he kept quiet for fear that Mladic would harm his family. But prosecutors maintained that Krstic jointly masterminded the genocide plan with Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, then the Bosnian Serb political leader. Both Mladic and Karadzic have been indicted but remain at large. The Yugoslav court was established in 1993 to punish those responsible for atrocities during the break up of Yugoslavia after the start of war in 1991. The Rwanda tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, has convicted eight people for genocide — the court’s harshest crime — and handed down sentences of up to life imprisonment. But the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia — the same court trying former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic — had not handed down a genocide conviction before Thursday’s ruling. Name: Radovan Karadzic, 56 Charges: 20 separate war crimes charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian war. Background: Leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, Karadzic is wanted for his alleged role in masterminding the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. Specifically, he is accused of leading the siege of Sarajevo and of complicity in the massacre of more than 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. Whereabouts: At large since the Bosnian war, reported to be hiding in Montenegro or Bosnia. Name: Ratko Mladic, 58 Charges: 20 separate war crimes charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian war. Background: Mladic, considered Radovan Karadzic's right-hand man, was the head of the Bosnian Serb armed forces during the war. Jointly indicted with Karadzic, Mladic commanded marauding Serb troops during some of the conflict's worst massacres. Whereabouts: Until Slobodan Milosevic's arrest in April, Mladic lived openly in Belgrade. He is now in hiding. Name: Milan Milutinovic, 58 Charges: Crimes against humanity during the Kosovo conflict. Background: Milutinovic succeeded his close ally Slobodan Milosevic as President of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic in 1997. The charges against Milutinovic center around the expulsion of more than 800,000 ethnic Albanians during the Serb crackdown in Kosovo. Whereabouts: Milutinovic is still President of Serbia. Name: Dragoljub Ojdanic, 60 Charges: Crimes against humanity during the Kosovo conflict. Background: Chief of Yugoslav army general staff during the Kosovo conflict, Ojdanic was indicted along with Milosevic in 1999 for war crimes. Troops under Ojdanic's control, along with Serb special police, organized the expulsion of hundreds of thousand of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Whereabouts: Retired from the army and in hiding since Milosevic's ouster in April 2000. Name: Nikola Sainovic, 52 Charges: Crimes against humanity during the Kosovo conflict. Background: A close advisor to Milosevic during a decade of Balkan wars, the former chemical engineer was allegedly a key planner of the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Whereabouts: Currently a member of the Yugoslav parliament. Name: Vlajko Stojiljkovic, 59 Charges: Crimes against humanity during the Kosovo conflict. Background: As Serbia's interior minister during the Kosovo conflict, Stojiljkovic is accused of deploying Serb special police to expel ethnic Albanians from the independence-minded Serb province. Indicted along with Milosevic, his former boss, Stojiljkovic is a former agricultural executive from Pozarevac, Milosevic's hometown. Whereabouts: Currently a member of the Yugoslav parliament. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. |
| Re: Bosnian Serb guilty of genocide |
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| Saleema |
| 08/02/01 at 12:31:41 |
| The sentence was the longest delivered yet by the tribunal in any of the convictions it has handed down for the Balkan wars. But it fell short of the eight consecutive life sentences sought by the prosecution. What an injustice to the Bosnian Muslims and what an injustice to the whole of Muslim Ummah. Is the genocide in WWII somehow different than that of the genocide that took place of Muslims? The Big Brothers of the world are just afraid that if they treat all genocides equally then WWII wouldn't be a "unique" event in the history of humanity anymore. [wlm] Saleema |
| Re: Bosnian Serb guilty of genocide |
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| Abid |
| 08/02/01 at 21:12:59 |
| Please also find these horrific accounts and see some gruesome pix on that site: http://www.skysports.com/skynews/storytemplate/storytoppic/0,,0-1025247,00.html Srebrenica's Tales Of Terror It is impossible to imagine the terrible scenes witnessed by survivors of the Srebrenica massacre. For months the picturesque spa town had been blockaded by the Serbs. Situated near the Serbian border, it was a strategically vital town and, isolated from the rest of Bosnia, would form part of a Greater Serbia. Safe area During 1995 the population of several thousand had swelled to 30-40,000 as victims of ethnic cleansing poured in from neighbouring towns, each with tales of atrocities that added to the air of terror. The UN proclaimed the town a "safe area" and deployed 100 lightly armed Dutch troops to fend off thousands of heavily armed Serb soldiers. But through the winter of 1994-95 Serbs tightened the nose. Virtually every tree in the town was felled for firewood. By the height of the summer, with Muslim militias raiding neighbouring Serb villages from Srebrenica, Serbian troops moved in for the kill. Barbed wire Footage shot by one survivor on a camcorder shows shear panic spreading through the town centre as word spreads that Serb troops had overrun the town's UN protectors. People can be seen losing control of their bodily functions as the full terror and realisation of what is about to happen dawns. Women and children are screaming hysterically while men are sat on walls contemplating what they probably know is their last hours alive. In one scene, hundreds of women are corralled into a barbed wire enclosure while Serb troops laugh and jeer on the outside. They had just been separated from their husbands, sons and brothers. Men who tried to hide in cellars, cupboards or bushes were "hunted down like dogs and slaughtered" in an orgy of evil, the trial heard. Iron bars Others committed suicide rather than have their lips, nose and ears cut off. Stories of men having their genitals sliced off and women having hand grenades forced in them had spread from other towns. It was also claimed parents were ordered to kill their own children, or were forced to watch as Serb troops did the job for them. In another scene, shot by Ratko Mladic's own camera crew, the men are seen being bussed off in modern coaches that a few years earlier would have been used by English tourists. The majority were never seen again. Those who scrambled to freedom spoke of being made to wait in line and watch while their friends were shot. Summary beatings were also meted out using iron bars, gun butts, boots and knives. Others spoke of being herded into industrial warehouses where hand grenades were thrown in. Investigators walked into a cultural centre and discovered the floor scattered with human remains. Traces of explosives were also found - body parts were even found on the theatre stage. Undoubtedly, as the men sat in the air-conditioned buses being driven to their destinations, many knew their lives were about to end in the most horrific fashion. Wassalam |
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