Radovan Karadzic the Serb nationalist-racist leader, who presided over the extermination of hundreds and thousands of Muslims and Croats in his 1992-95 drive to cleanse his greater Serbia of dream of non-Serbs has at last been arrested and subjected to the process of justice. That he and his accomplices could commit such a heinous crime against humanity at the fag end of the 20th century and that, too, under the very nose of the UN peacekeepers and before the watchful eyes of the most civilised nations of the earth for such a long time is itself a greater mystery than what Karadzic and his men have done. After the Nato warplanes bombed Karadzic and his marauding hordes out of their dream, then these perpetrators of the worst crime against humanity after the Second World War came to their senses and fled the scene. After that Karadzic went into hiding and remained so for the next 13 years under various disguises. His last disguised persona shrouded in white beard, moustache and long hair was one of a practitioner in alternative medicine. However, his years in hiding has ended and with it his and his cohorts', too. Two other war criminals now remain to be arrested-Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. The present government in Belgrade is cooperating with West to hand over the war criminals with the assurance that they would finally get entry into the European Union (EU). So is the trade-off between ultra-Serb nationalism and the prospect of better jobs and economic security if the promised affiliation with EU takes place. All this has a ring of pragmatism about it. Hence is Karadzic facing the tribunal in The Hague.
Following is from Peter Walker, Mark Tran and agencies from the Guardian about the proceedings of Karadzic trial on its first day.
Former Bosnian Serb military commander charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
Radovan Karadzic today asked for more time to enter a plea as he made his first appearance before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
In a sometimes erratic and rambling appearance, the former Bosnian Serb leader - charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - complained he had been "kidnapped" to appear before the court.
He also attempted, before being stopped by the judge, to outline a complex plot under which he claimed Richard Holbrooke, the US senior US diplomat who brokered the 1995 Dayton peace deal in Bosnia, wanted him murdered.
Newly shorn of the bushy beard and long hair he had used to disguise his identity and evade capture for almost 13 years, Karadzic listened as the Dutch judge, Alphons Orie, read out the long list of allegations.
They include charges connected to the Srebrenica massacre and the long siege of Sarajevo.
Asked whether he fully understood the charge sheet, Karadzic, dressed in a dark suit and tie and with headphones over his white hair, said he had not been given sufficient time to study them. He has 30 days to enter a plea, otherwise a not guilty plea will be entered automatically.
Karadzic, who confirmed he would defend himself, will remain in custody. The hearing was adjourned until August 29.
At one point Orie asked Karadzic if his family knew where he was being held, Karadzic smiled, replying: "I do not believe there is anyone who does not know that I am in the detention unit."
Once the charges had been outlined Karadzic attempted to complain at length about "numerous irregularities" in the way he was arrested, the manner of his appearance before the court and the alleged plot involving Holbrooke.
He said Holbrooke had the "intention to liquidate me" before being told by the judge that this was not the moment for such claims.
He protested, calling it a "matter of life and death" and warning that Holbrooke's arm "is long enough to reach me here". He also talked about an alleged deal reached with Holbrooke under which he would retire from public life in return for immunity.
The combative, occasionally tetchy performance - broadcast live on four of Serbia's five national TV networks - echoed at times that of Slobodan Milosevic when he was tried in the same courtroom.
As with Milosevic, Karadzic's case could drag on for years. Milosevic also presented his own defence and the hearing was regularly delayed, both by the former Serb president's ill health and his delaying tactics. He died in 2006 before a verdict was reached.
Karadzic faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for allegedly masterminding atrocities throughout Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Prosecutors say he was responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, the deadly 44-month Sarajevo siege and the establishment of a network of camps where non-Serbs were tortured, raped and murdered.
Karadzic, who reinvented himself as a new-age guru during his time as a fugitive from Serb and Nato forces, arrived at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in a convoy of police vehicles.
He spoke first to his identity. "You are Mr Radovan Karadzic?" Orie asked. "Yes I am," came the reply, delivered in Serbian.
Karadzic then confirmed he had waived his right to legal representation.
"I have an invisible adviser, but I have decided to represent myself," he said cryptically.
The most dramatic moment, in a hearing largely dominated by administrative matters, came as Orie read out a summary of the charges.
Karadzic, 63, looked at times nervous, his mouth opening and closing and his eyes moving from side to side as the judge read out the summary.
It began with the allegation that Karadzic had "power and control" over Bosnian Serb forces when the alleged offences took place between July 1991 and November 1995.
Earlier, Marco Gerritsen, a lawyer for a group called the Mothers of Srebrenica, said survivors of Europe's worst mass murder since the second world war had mixed feelings about Karadzic's arrest.
"First, of course they are happy because it is a great step towards justice," he told the Associated Press.
"On the other hand, there are still some other people at large, like Ratko Mladic."
Mladic, Karadzic's military leader during the war, is one of only two remaining fugitives indicted by the tribunal, along with Goran Hadzic, a Croatian Serb leader.
Karadzic was arrested on July 21 on a Belgrade bus. He was virtually unrecognisable, his face hidden behind a heavy white beard.
His arrival in the Netherlands yesterday aboard a Serbian government business jet marked the end of a 13-year effort by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to capture its most wanted suspect.
However, convicting him of genocide will be difficult, requiring proof of a deliberate intention to wipe out a specific ethnic group in whole or in part.
Since the tribunal's inception in 1993, a genocide-related charge has survived the appeals process only once, when Radislav Krstic was convicted of aiding and abetting genocide.
Let us take a closer look at the man who after the breakdown of a secular and socialist Yugoslavia could enact such barbarity in the heart of Europe. James Sturcke of the Guardian narrates:
Radovan Karadzic is the former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war in the 1990s. He was born in 1945 in Savnik, Yugoslavia, in what is now the Republic of Montenegro. His father, Vuko, was a Chetnik rebel who fought the Nazis during the second world war and later Yugoslavia's leader, Tito. He was in prison for much of Karadzic's childhood.
Karadzic moved to Sarajevo in 1960 where he trained in medicine, specialising in psychiatry. He saw himself as part of the intelligentsia and wrote poetry. He was a psychologist for the Red Star Belgrade football team before entering politics.
As communism collapsed in Yugoslavia, rabid nationalism devoured the old Balkan federation, causing its bloody disintegration and a land grab by its two main ethnic groups, the Serbs and the Croats.
Guided by a vision of uniting Bosnian Serbs with neighbouring Serbia, Karadzic formed the Serbian Democratic party in 1989. He mobilised Serbs in Bosnia against its Muslims and Croats, who wanted to break away from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. A three-year war ensued from 1992 to 1995.
Under Karadzic's command, Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo and expelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats from the 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina seized by the Serbs.
During the bloody ethnic cleansing, Karadzic, now president of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska, held court in a converted ski hotel not far from Sarajevo. He smoked Cuban cigars and was partial to French Cognac. A New York Times reporter recounted the horror of Muslim women and children fleeing across the mountains from towns overrun by Serbian paramilitaries, killing the men.
"No, no, no," Karadzic replied, far from being forced from their homes, he said, the fleeing Muslims were being given an opportunity for which they should be grateful - the chance to "return" to the only place they could ever truly be at home, in towns and villages elsewhere where they could live with other Muslims, away from Serbs.
Some 200,000 people were killed and more than were 1 million were driven from their homes during the war, which ended with the signing of the Dayton agreement.
Karadzic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity inflicted on Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The charge sheet includes the murder of nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, after the supposedly UN-protected enclave fell to Bosnian Serb forces. He is also charged with running death camps for non-Serbs, and the shelling and sniping on civilians in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in a siege that lasted more than three years.
His arrest comes just as European foreign ministers are due to meet about Serbia's ties with the EU, which has made action against Karadzic and his former military commander, Ratko Mladic, a condition of membership. It also comes days after the formation of a pro-western coalition government which has pledged to pursue EU membership.
Killer of Srebrenica and Sarajevo faces trial
Syed Fattahul Alim | Published: August 02, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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