Christiane Amanpour: Verdict increases pressure on Serb officials

Christiane Amanpour

Former Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic was sentenced Thursday to 46 years in prison after being convicted by the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal of having a role in the deaths of "thousands of Muslims." CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who covered the war in Bosnia and has been covering the war crimes trials at The Hague, looks at the case.

Q. Why didn't Krstic get the maximum sentence of life in prison?

A. Krstic didn't get the maximum life sentence because the court found that while he agreed to carry out the genocide, he didn't plan it. The judge made a special point of saying that the idea of killing all the combat-age men in the area did not come from Krstic.

From the judge's remarks one can presume that the most severe penalty is being saved for those who did come up with the plan.

Q. Will this verdict increase the pressure on officials in Republika Serbska to arrest Krstic's boss, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and political leader Radovan Karadzic?

A. The pressure is mounting on the Republika Serbska and this will only add to that pressure. The judge has now established for the first time that genocide was committed by the Bosnian Serb forces.

Krstic is convicted of that, and the judge said that there are other individuals with responsibility greater than his -- he presumably means Mladic and Karadzic. He referred to them several times during the sentencing.

It will definitely add to the pressure on the Bosnian Serbs. A law was recently submitted in the Bosnian Serb parliament which would allow them to hand over those indicted on war crimes charges.

Q. Why is this case important for future genocide trials?

A. It is the first such verdict in Europe since the Nuremberg trials after the end of World War II. Secondly, the charge of genocide had been bandied about in Bosnia since the war began. Now for the first time, an international court has said, "Yes, genocide did happen during the Bosnian War."

Q. What did the prosecutor have to prove to get a conviction on the charge of genocide?

A. It was extremely difficult. He had to prove not only that the deaths occurred but the intent to exterminate a whole group or part of a group based on ethnic or political or religious make-up.

Krstic didn't dispute the killings had taken place, but he said it was a military campaign to wipe out an enemy fighting force. For that reason, he argued, he was not guilty of genocide.

Q. Was the evidence difficult to gather for the trial?

A. It was very difficult to gather the evidence. Investigators, after July 1995, traveled to Tuzla in an attempt to investigate this case, but for more than a year they could not travel to Bosnian Serb held territory, the area where bodies were dug up and reburied. They were in hostile conditions; they had to have NATO peacekeepers to protect them.

They also had a very difficult time persuading witnesses to come forth on the Bosnian Serb side.

Q. Is it likely that most of the bodies of the men and boys killed at Srebrenca will eventually be found and identified?

A. That's a very important question for the families. There is at least one warehouse that is full of body bags that they haven't been able to identify. It will be a long and difficult process.

Q. Does this verdict have any implications for the upcoming trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic?

A. Milosevic has not yet been charged with genocide. The prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has told us that in the final indictment she will charge Milosevic with genocide and will expand the charges against him to cover the war in Bosnia and Croatia.

All of this brings more and more pressure, but each trial is different. Prosecutors will have to prove, for example, that Milosevic had command responsibility for what happened in Kosovo.