News & Politics - Bosnia war crime suspect Karadzic arrested

*Fatima* · 07-22-2008, 01:31 AM

Quote:

(CNN) -- Former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, accused of masterminding "ethnic cleansing" deportations and killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, has been arrested after more than a decade in hiding.

Radovan Karadzic, shown here in 1995, is charged with war crimes relating to the 1992-1995 Bosnia conflict.

Karadzic, 63, faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war that have earned him the nickname "Butcher of Bosnia."

Last seen in public in 1996, Karadzic was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the 1992-1995 war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia.

The conflict included the Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and a deadly, 44-month siege of Sarajevo.

Former U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke blamed Karadzic for all the deaths in the three-year war in Bosnia, which had the bloodiest of the Balkan conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

"Without Radovan Karadzic, this thing wouldn't have happened," Holbrooke told CNN. Watch Holbrooke say the arrest will help stabilize the Balkans »

While president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats during a campaign of "ethnic cleansing." Early estimates of the death toll from the 3-year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000.

Vladimir Petrovic, the charge d'affairs at the Serbian Embassy in Washington, said his government's security forces made the arrest, but said no further details had been released.

"I think this is an example that the Serbian government is committed to all its international obligations and that it will continue cooperation with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," Petrovic said.

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Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, congratulated Serbian authorities for taking Karadzic into custody and called it "an important day for the victims."

"It is also an important day for international justice, because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice," Brammertz said.

He said authorities "in due course" will determine when Karadzic is to be transferred to the tribunal at The Hague.

Karadzic's arrest leaves former Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander, as the top-ranking war crimes suspect still at large.

"While this is an important milestone, the work of the International Tribunal will not be complete until all fugitives have been arrested and tried," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said.

News of Karadzic's arrest was greeted with jubilation in the streets of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, which Bosnian Serb forces had shelled heavily during the war. Watch celebrations in Bosnia »

"Today, I can tell you that I feel kind of good," said Zlatko Lagumdzija, a former Bosnian prime minister wounded during the siege. He said the arrest could offer "a chance for new thinking" in Bosnia, still grappling with the scars of war.

"Today it looks like a new wind is moving from Belgrade," he said. "And I hope it will be a signal to Bosnian authorities that the state has to be set in order to deliver what the state is supposed to deliver: peace and justice."

Karadzic, a one-time psychiatrist and self-styled poet, declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic when Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992. Watch CNN's Christiane Amanpour chronicle the life of Karadzic »

The Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital.

During the conflict that followed, the Serb forces launched what they called the "ethnic cleansing" of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats. See a map of the Balkans today »

Among the crimes Karadzic is accused of overseeing is the massacre at Srebrenica, a U.N. "safe area" overrun by Serb troops in July 1995. Nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed at Srebrenica, the worst European massacre since World War II.

During the siege of Sarajevo, "shelling and sniping killed and wounded thousands of civilians of both sexes and all ages, including children and the elderly," according to the U.N. tribunal's indictment of Karadzic.

He was removed from power in 1995, when the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war barred anyone accused of war crimes from holding office.

But he remained "kind of a Robin Hood" to Serbs during more than a decade as a fugitive, said Holbrooke, one of the architects of the Dayton Accords. Follow a timeline on Karadzic »

Serbia's government has been under increasing pressure to arrest war crimes suspects such as Karadzic and Mladic -- who were believed to be in hiding in Serbia rather than Bosnia.

The European Union warned in December that any steps toward allowing Serbia into the organization would depend on its cooperation with the war crimes tribunal.

I have to say this is very good news for us and it is very overdue. The wheels of justice turn slow, but they turn. It gives some closure to victims, it gives them hope and it's a good reason to move on.

***globe2912*** · 07-22-2008, 05:38 AM

I'm glad they finally managed to catch him. The news reports about the Bosnian war, the siege of Sarajevo etc, are still very vivid in my memory. It's time for him to face the charges for what he did at the war crimes tribunal.

Here's hope that his arrest will give some closure to the victims after all this time.

*Fatima* · 07-22-2008, 02:04 PM

The war is still very vivid in my memory. The pain is still there. We've all lost friends, neighbours and family members. We've all lost someone or something. And this is so incredibly important for the healing proces.

But what's even more important is the trial. I hope they gather enough evidence to convinct him for genocide and the siege of Sarajevo.

**sunnykerr** · 07-22-2008, 02:14 PM

The high school I went to was the only one in the region to have a program that dealt with the transition of neo-Canadians into the local school system. I've been incredibly fortunate in my life, but this genocide will forever stick with me. Not to put too much emphasis on it, but my universe had been pretty monochromatic before. My high school was way more diverse than anything I'd ever seen before, because of that program.

But then new friends started pouring in from the Balkans. But I mean... pouring in. I was pretty ignorant of the ways of the world when I was twelve, but it would have taken a real idiot to fail to notice what was going on.

I'm glad there will be a trial. I remember when Archbishop Tutu came to speak at my university and when he spoke of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. This is a completely different situation, but I can't help feeling that, to a certain extent, the outcome of the trial is almost irrelevant.

Not really irrelevant. Justice must be served.

But, to me, and this is after listening to Archbishop Tutu, it seems that what needs to happen is for the world to acknowledge what happened, for this man to be faced with the many crimes he has committed and for everyone he's ever wronged to have the right to confront him on it.

After that, he can rot in jail for the rest of his life for all I care.

ceilirose · 07-22-2008, 10:46 PM

It's long overdue and the fact that he was caught in Belgrade can make one wonder how long the "authorities" knew where he was. From what I've read he was giving speeches on alternative medicine under an assumed name.

I remember him being such a distinctive figure that I'm surprised he wasn't caught before this. After he's tried he can rot in jail for all I care - he was just a horrible person.

*Fatima* · 07-23-2008, 05:13 AM

He could've been caught a long time ago. I think Serbia was never really interested, untill the European Union (I think it may have been only the Dutch, but I am not sure) demanded he and Mladic be caught before they could have a membership and eventually enter the EU.

The Serbian minister of foreign affairs was in Holland some time ago at a University, and one of the students asked him where are Karadzic and Mladic. All he said was "we're working on it". Which basically means "we don't really care". When that story was told, every student started laughing.

**sunnykerr** · 07-24-2008, 06:02 AM

He should have been caught a LONG, LONG time ago. But that's the world we live in these days, isn't it? Justice only happens when the cameras are watching... if then.