Srebrenica was genocide: judges

The massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 was an act of genocide in a deliberate attempt by the Bosnian Serb leadership to exterminate part of the Muslim community, appeal judges ruled in a crucial case at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague on Monday.

The judgment, establishing beyond doubt that the massacre was the gravest crime possible, will have a far-reaching impact on many other trials at The Hague, including that of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, and a ripple effect in international justice.

Five appeal judges, headed by the tribunal president, Judge Theodor Meron of the US, dis-missed appeals by both the defense and the prosecution in the case of General Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb regional commander who is the only person so far convicted of genocide by the tribunal.

They overruled that verdict, given in 2001, and decided Krstic was guilty not of genocide but of aiding and abetting genocide, and reduced his sentence from 46 to 35 years.

The defense had argued that "ethnic cleansing" was not genocide and that the genocide verdict should be overruled; the prosecution that the 46-year sentence was too light, given that Krstic had been found guilty on the gravest of charges and others found guilty of lesser crimes had received life sentences.

"The appeals chamber calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide," Meron said, explaining the judgment.

"Those responsible will bear this stigma, and it will serve as a warning to those who may in future contemplate the commission of such a heinous act," he said.

"By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide," he said. "They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general.

"They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity."

The judgment finally lays to rest all claims that there was no genocide in Bosnia in the 1992 to 1995 war. Genocide is the most difficult of crimes to prove and the judges on Monday made it plain that they will demand the most rigorous evidence for any case alleging genocide.

Milosevic is charged with genocide and is now preparing his defense. Experts following the case believe that the prosecution has failed to prove genocide.

A finding that no genocide had taken place in Srebrenica would have been a severe setback for the prosecution.

In more than 10 years of activity, the tribunal has so far found that genocide occurred solely in Srebrenica.

For that reason the prosecution in the Milosevic case sought to link the former Serbian leader to the Srebrenica massacres of July 1995.

A finding of genocide requires proof of "specific intent" to wipe out an entire or part of a religious or ethnic community.

"Among the grievous crimes this tribunal has the duty to punish, the crime of genocide is singled out for special condemnation and opprobrium," Meron said.

"The crime is horrific in its scope; its perpetrators identify entire human groups for extinction. This is a crime against all of humankind, its harm being felt not only by the group targeted for destruction, but by all of humanity."