Radislav Krstic, wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Drina Corps, who is serving 35 years in prison for aiding the Srebrenica genocide, has asked for early release and said he wants to ask the victims’ families for forgiveness.
Lejla Memic, November 13, 2024
Radislav Krstic in the courtroom in The Hague in 2000. Photo: EPA PHOTO/REUTERS/POOL/Fred Ernst.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague has made public Radislav Krstic’s latest request for early release and his letter admitting guilt for aiding the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces.
“I accept the verdicts of the Tribunal from 2001 and 2004, where it is established that the forces of the army to which I belonged committed genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995, and that I helped and supported the genocide by knowing that some members of the General Staff had the intention to commit genocide,” Krstic, now 76, said in the letter.
In the letter, Krstic wrote that he aided and abetted the crime against humanity through participation in a joint criminal enterprise to forcibly displace Bosniak civilians, that he participated in the creation of a humanitarian crisis that preceded the forced transfer of women, children and the elderly people from Srebrenica, knowing that civilians were exposed to murders, rapes, beatings and other abuses.
He admitted that he knew that the General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army did not have enough forces to carry out the executions of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995 without the use of Drina Corps troops, who were under his command.
“I knew that the use of forces under my command would significantly contribute to carrying out the execution of Bosniak prisoners,” he added.
He said that he would like to “bow down before the victims and ask for forgiveness”, and said that he would do so if the families of the victims allow him.
Krstic also praised the UN General Assembly’s adoption last year of a resolution designating July 11 as a day of remembrance for the victims of genocide.
The wartime Drina Corps commander was sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to 35 years in prison for aiding and abetting the genocide in Srebrenica under a final verdict in 2004, and then sent to Britain to serve his sentence.
However, he was returned to The Hague after being attacked in prison in the UK, and then subsequently sent to Poland to serve the rest of his sentence.
His request for early release, sent in June but only recently made public by the UN court, stated that he is ready to accept all the conditions set for early release if it is approved.
Krstic has previously made several requests for early release, all of which have been denied – the most recent at the beginning of the year.
BIRN 2015