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Posts Tagged ‘Mr Karadzic’

Dragging up the past

March 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

The arrest of a Bosnian war leader threatens to reopen deep wounds in the Balkans

THE timing could not have been more inauspicious. Radovan Karadzic who had escaped arrest for alleged war crimes for so long had just begun his testimony at the UN’s war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday March 1st. The Serbian struggle during the Bosnian war of 1992-95, including the bloody siege of Sarajevo, had been “holy and just” he claimed. At about the same moment British police arrested, at the request of the Serbian government, a wartime Bosnian-Muslim (Bosniak) leader, Ejup Ganic. He was intercepted at London’s Heathrow airport.

As the Bosnian war erupted in April 1992, Ejup Ganic was a member of the country’s collective presidency. Bosnia had declared independence from the Serb-led former Yugoslavia and the Serbian siege of Sarajevo had begun. On the hills around the city Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander, ordered his men to fire indiscriminately into Sarajevo. Unlike Mr Karadzic, he still evades arrest and is believed to be hiding in Serbia. Yugoslav army soldiers still within Sarajevo were besieged. They then captured Bosnia’s president, Alija Izetbegovic, and his daughter. …

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The week ahead

October 25th, 2009 | No Comments

The trial of Radovan Karadzic for war crimes gets under way, and other news

• THE trial of Radovan Karadzic is set to begin at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Monday October 26th. Mr Karadzic, who led Bosnian Serbs during the war of secession that accompanied the collapse of Yugoslavia, has been charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He is accused of atrocities against Croats and Bosnian Muslims and most notably is charged with ordering the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys. See article

• THE Obama administration’s plans for coping in the future with teetering giant financial firms will be unveiled on Monday October 26th. Details of a new bill that will give America’s government the power to dismantle stricken banks is intended to belie the notion that some financial firms are “too big to fail”. The legislation may also be extended to cover huge insurance companies. …

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War crimes and international justice: Always get your man

October 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Bringing war criminals to justice is a slow business. But the net is widening

WHO, outside the Balkans, now remembers Radovan Karadzic? A hunted man for 13 years, the leader of Bosnia’s Serbs in the war that ended in 1995 was captured last year. He was working as a psychologist in a private Belgrade clinic. Barring any last-minute hitch, on October 26th he will finally appear in the dock at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Along with General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander who is still at large, and Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of Serbia proper who died before his lengthy trial ended, Mr Karadzic stands accused of Europe’s worst atrocities, against Croats and Bosnian Muslims, since the second world war. His alleged crimes include ordering the massacre at Srebrenica of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys. …

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Call to speed up Karadzic trial

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

Radovan Karadzic

Judges in The Hague have asked prosecutors to find ways to speed up the forthcoming genocide trial of ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

They want the prosecution to reduce the charge sheet against the 64-year-old.

If the prosecution fails to do so, the war crimes court could do the job for them, an order from the judges says.

Mr Karadzic faces 11 charges. The prosecution currently intends to call some 500 witnesses, and estimates it will need 490 hours to examine them.

Mr Karadzic was arrested and brought to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) last year, after more than a decade in hiding.

Not guilty plea

The latest order, signed by Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy, asks prosecutors to propose ways "in which the scope of the trial may be reduced".

"Should the prosecution not provide assistance in identifying specific counts and/or crime sites or incidents… the Chamber may fix the crimes sites and/or incidents itself," it says.

THE INDICTMENT

  • Eleven counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities
  • Charged over shelling Sarajevo during the city’s siege, in which some 12,000 civilians died
  • Allegedly organised the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosniak men and youths in Srebrenica
  • Targeted Bosniak and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals
  • Unlawfully deported and transferred civilians because of national or religious identity
  • Destroyed homes, businesses and sacred sites

Crime sites, in this case, are the individual incidents that help to make up one or more of the 11 charges against Mr Karadzic.

The judges noted that the charges cover crimes that are alleged to have occurred in 27 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Srebrenica and Sarajevo.

Mr Karadzic is accused of genocide over the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) at Srebrenica in 1995, and is also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court filed a not guilty plea on his behalf after he refused to offer a plea, saying the court lacked jurisdiction.

The ICTY was originally due to have finished all trials by 2008 and appeals by 2010.

The court now estimates that the Karadzic trial may not conclude until early 2012, with some appeals running into 2013.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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