Radislav Krstić
Bosnian Serb Officer
Radislav Krstić (Serbian Cyrillic: Радислав Крстић; born 15 February 1948) is a former Bosnian Serb Deputy Commander and later Chief of Staff of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (the "Bosnian Serb army") from October 1994 until 12 July 1995. He was promoted to the rank of major general in June 1995 and assumed command of the Drina Corps on 13 July 1995.
In 1998 Krstić was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in connection with the genocide of around 8,000 Bosniak prisoners of war and civilians on 11 July 1995 during the Srebrenica massacre – Europe's first genocide since World War II. On 2 August 2001, Krstić became the first man convicted of genocide by the Tribunal, and was sentenced to 46 years in prison. He was only the third person ever to have been convicted under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The sentence was subsequently shortened to 35 years in prison when an appeal court upheld a lesser charge for aiding and abetting genocide.
Early life and education
Krstić was born in Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He attended primary school in Vlasenica and elementary school in Han Pijesak, where he also completed his secondary education in a grammar school. Krstić describes his young years as very peaceful, and the community in which he lived as "heterogeneous" and very tolerant, particularly among the youth.
In 1968, upon completion of his secondary education, he began his university education by enrolling in the military academy in Belgrade. He graduated in 1972, whereupon he became an active duty officer of the former JNA.
Personal life
Krstić is married and has a son Dobroslav and daughter Djerdana.
“Radislav Krstić” enters the record as bosnian Serb Officer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Radislav, Krstić and Bosnian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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