Former Republika Srpska Army General Radislav Krstic, who was sentenced in The Hague to 35 years in prison for aiding and abetting genocide in Srebrenica, admitted his responsibility and repented for his participation in the genocide, reported the Bosnian edition of Radio Free Europe (RFE).
In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed over eight thousand Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. For the genocide and other crimes in the Srebrenica area, more than 50 people were sentenced to a total of about 700 years in prison. Among them are Republika Srpska's wartime president Radovan Karadzic and Republika Srpska Army Commander-in-Chief Ratko Mladic, who have been sentenced to life in prison.
In a letter pleading for temporary release, former Bosnian Serb army general Radislav Krstic wrote that if he could, he himself would vote for the United Nations Resolution declaring July 11 as an International Day of Remembrance of the genocide in Srebrenica.
„I do not have the right to vote, since my name is also mentioned in this Resolution – "I committed an incredible and unforgivable crime," Krstic said in his letter. “If one day I am released, (…) I would like to go to Potocari (where the Srebrenica cemetery is located) one more time to bow before the victims and ask for forgiveness.
The Appeals Council of the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague sentenced Krstic in 2004 to 35 years in prison on charges of aiding and abetting the Srebrenica genocide, the persecution and killing of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995. This is the first final a verdict by which the Hague Tribunal found that the Republika Srpska army had committed genocide in Srebrenica. This sentence reduced Krstic's previous 45-year sentence, announced in 2001. He was then convicted of committing genocide, but the Appeals Council changed that part.
In his letter, Krstic accepted the Tribunal's verdicts from 2001 and 2004. He confirmed that he knew that “some members of the General Staff intended to commit genocide”, but that this staff “did not have sufficient forces to to commit shooting“ without the “use of the Drina Corps”, whose commander at that time was Krstich. “I knew that the use of force under my command would greatly contribute to the execution of the Bosnian prisoners,”, he adds.
He also confirms that he aided and abetted a crime against humanity by participating in the joint criminal act of forcibly expelling Bosnian Muslim civilians from Potocari between 10 and 13 July 1995.
„I participated in the creation of a humanitarian crisis that preceded the forcible transfer of women, children and the elderly from Srebrenica”, Krstic states in his letter.
He also notes that with this letter he is addressing the public in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
„I would like my words to be read and understood by the young people who today live in the territories where the country called Yugoslavia (…) once stood, to stop and say to themselves – never again. Never more war, never more death just because someone professes another religion or is from another nation, has other beliefs, never more genocide," Krstic wrote.