Momčilo Krajišnik
Momčilo Krajišnik (Cyrillic: Момчило Крајишник) (born 20 January 1945 in Sarajevo) is a war crimenal, and a former Bosnian Serb politician.
Between 1990 and 1992, he was the speaker of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and, between June and December 1992, a member of the expanded Presidency of the Bosnian Serb Republic. After the Bosnian War he became the Serb representative on the three-member Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996 through 1998. He lost his bid for re-election in 1998 to Živko Radišić.
In 2006 he was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and is currently in prison serving a 20 years sentence.
Participation in the Dayton negotiations
Krajišnik took part in the negotiations leading to the Dayton agreements. About that period, Richard Holbrooke noted in his memoirs:
As everybody who met him noted, Krajisnik had only one long and extraordinarily brushy eyebrow, which spanned his forehead, creating what looked like a permanent dark cloud over his deep-set eyes. Although Krajisnik had not been indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal - and could therefore participate in Dayton - it was hard to distinguish his views from those of his close friend Radovan Karadzic. Milosevic had often said that Krajisnik was "more difficult" than Karadzic, but we had little basis on which to make an indipendent judgment. (...) He and Izetbegovic knew each other well, from lengthy meetings in the Bosnian Assembly before the war. Krajisnik owned a five-hectare farm on the edge of Sarajevo, in an area that would probably revet to the Muslims in any settlement, and we often made bitter jokes that the war was really over "Krajisnik's five hectares [1]
ICTY Conviction
Krajišnik was indicted of various crimes against humanity (namely extermination, murder, persecution, deportation, and forced transfer), murder as a war crime, and genocide in relation to acts committed in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was arrested on April 3, 2000 by French commandos of SFOR, and is in custody at the detention unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Netherlands. After the death of Slobodan Milošević, Krajišnik became the highest-ranking politician on trial at the ICTY until his conviction.
On 27 September 2006, Krajišnik was convicted of the following crimes against humanity: extermination, murder, persecution, deportation, and forced transfer. He was acquitted of the charges of murder as a war crime, genocide, and complicity in genocide. He was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment.[2] On 17 March 2009 the charges of murder and extermination were dropped and the sentence was reduced to 20 years.[3]
While the ICTY judges found that there was evidence that crimes committed in Bosnia constituted the criminal act of genocide (actus reus), they did not establish that the accused possessed genocidal intent, or was part of a criminal enterprise that had such an intent (mens rea).[4]
According to Edina Becirevic, both Krajišnik and Radovan Karadžić were warned by Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladić, also indicted on genocide charges, that their "plans"(sic) could not be committed without committing genocide. :
- People are not little stones, or keys in someone's pocket, that can be moved from one place to another just like that... Therefore, we cannot precisely arrange for only Serbs to stay in one part of the country while removing others painlessly. I do not know how Mr Krajišnik and Mr Karadžić will explain that to the world. That is genocide, were the words she attributed to Mladić.[5]
In reality, Mladić wasn't talking about any plan by Krajišnik or Karadžić. What he really said was:
- We cannot cleanse nor can we have a sieve to sift so that only Serbs would stay, or that the Serbs would fall through and the rest leave. Well that is, that will not, I do not know how Mr. Krajisnik and Mr. Karadzic would explain this to the world. People, that would be genocide. We have to call upon any man who has bowed his forehead to the ground to embrace these areas and the territory of the state we plan to make. He has his place with us and next to us ... both Serbs and Muslims all must take care of one another. [6]
References
- ^ Richard Holbrooke, To End a War, p. 255
- ^ Bosnia Serb jailed for war crimes, BBC News, 27 September 2006
- ^ Krajisnik appeal fails, Euronews, 17 March 2009
- ^ Staff. Momcilo Krajisnik convicted of crimes against humanity, acquitted of genocide and complicity in genocide, A press release by the ICTY in The Hague, 27 September 2006 JP/MOW/1115e
- ^ Bosnia's ‘Accidental’ Genocide Edina Becirevic, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Tribunal Update N° 470, 29 September 2006. Also published at [1]
- ^ ICTY, Krajišnik Trial Exhibit P65.127.1; Minutes of the 16th Session of the Assembly of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina held on 12 May 1992 in Banja Luka; Pg. 39 of ICTY English-language translation