Genocide trial of Bosnian Serb general opens

Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, prosecutor says

March 13, 2000
Web posted at: 3:07 p.m. EST (2007 GMT)

In this story: Muslim population virtually wiped out Refugees 'hunted down with dogs' First in a series of trials RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Prosecutors opened their case against Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic in The Hague on Monday by describing his alleged command over the 1995 slaughter of Srebrenica's Muslims as Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

"This is a case about the triumph of evil," said U.S. prosecutor Mark Harmon in his opening statement before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "A story about how officers and soldiers of the Bosnian Serb army, men ... who professed to have faith in the almighty, and who professed to represent the ideals of a proud and distinguished Serbian past, organized, planned and willingly participated in genocide or stood silent in the face of it."

Krstic is charged with leading the "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims at the U.N.-protected town of Srebrenica, where thousands had sought refuge from the advancing Bosnian Serb army in 1995. About 7,500 people were killed or are missing, prosecutors say.

"Thousands of civilians who had laid down their arms were systematically murdered by the Bosnian Serb army and the accused," said Harmon. "The crimes that were committed were of a type and scale not seen since World War II."

Prosecutors say Krstic ordered the operation at Srebrenica, which virtually wiped out the local Muslim population through systematic execution and deportation.

In addition to genocide, he has been charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. If found guilty of any of the charges, he faces possible life imprisonment.

Harmon described how Bosnian Serb forces led by Krstic and commander-in-chief General Ratko Mladic entered the enclave that was guarded by some 100 lightly-armed Dutch peacekeepers.

The seizure of Srebrenica, he said, was followed by the carefully organized massacre and the deportation of up to 30,000 of the region's majority Muslim population.

Dressed in a gray jacket, black shirt and tie, Krstic listened stoically to the case against him. He pleaded innocent to the charges following his transfer to the Netherlands in December 1998.

As commander of the Bosnian Serb army's 15,000-strong Drina Corps, Krstic reported to Mladic and through him to then-Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, the indictment says.

Karadzic and Mladic have been indicted for genocide but remain at large.

Harmon described meetings over which Mladic presided, with Krstic in attendance. He said Mladic issued ultimatums to the U.N. protection force and to Muslim representatives as Bosnian Serb forces took control of Srebrenica.

A pig was slaughtered outside one meeting. The pig's cries, Harmon said, were to remind Muslim hostages of their potential fate. Harmon said his team would show footage of the meetings.

Prosecutor Mark Harmon holds a bag of wire ligatures, part of the evidence in the case against Krstic

The prosecutor described how more than 60 busloads of refugees were taken from a U.N. base in Srebrenica to execution sites, where they were bound and blindfolded and systematically murdered.

Those who tried to hide in their homes "were hunted down with dogs and slaughtered."

He said forensic experts have exhumed 1,800 corpses and that a further 2,500 are in mass graves that have not been dug up yet.

The massacre operation required buses, fuel, detention centers, hundreds of guards, blindfolds, ligatures and heavy digging equipment, he said. Harmon held up one of the wire ligatures he said was used and showed photographs of bodies lying blindfolded with their hands bound behind them.

After the killings, Serb soldiers tried to conceal the graves, but when word of the massacre got out, they dug up the corpses and reburied them elsewhere, Harmon said.

To prove genocide, prosecutors must show that the defendant was aware of participating in an organized operation to destroy an ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.

Judges also heard testimony from U.N. investigator Jean-Rene Ruez who showed video footage and photos of Srebrenica during and after occupation. Bodies were widely visible while rubble lined the roadsides. The central mosque was destroyed, its minaret collapsed.

The prosecution case resumes on Tuesday and is expected to last six weeks.

Krstic's trial is the first of three involving arrested Bosnian Serb military chiefs and a further sign that the tribunal is now focusing on those ultimately responsible for the atrocities committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Krstic was seized by NATO-led peacekeeping troops in December 1998. International troops have since detained Serb ex-generals Momir Talic and Stanislav Galic, who is held responsible for the brutal Serb siege of Sarajevo.

Correspondent Patricia Kelly, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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