Radovan Karadzic arrested by Serbia
22 July 2008
On 21 July, the Serbian government announced the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, wanted by the International Criminal Tribune on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Karadzic is charged with genocide at Srebrenica, where some 8,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim males were rounded up and murdered and bulldozed into mass graves in July 1995. Other charges include the taking captive, abuse, rape and killing of women and girls during the Bosnian war. In the summer of 1992, as leader of the breakaway Serb Republic of Bosnia, Karadzic begun orchestrating a savage war against the Bosnian Muslims and Croats who declared Bosnia independent of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federation. His heavily armed forces, supplied by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav National Army under the control of Slobodan Milosevic, besieged Sarajevo for 43 months and were responsible for the death of ca 11.000 residents.
According to Serbian government sources, Karadzic was arrested on 21 July, but had been under surveillance in Serbia for several weeks, after a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service. Karadzic’s lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, told reporters he was arrested on the night of 18 July, while taking a bus between two suburbs of Belgrade, and had been held for three days before the announcement.
Karadzic's place of hiding had been a constant subject of international speculation since he went underground in 1997. The West had long suspected Belgrade of failing to press the search, but the new government, an alliance of President Tadic's pro-Western Democratic Party and the Socialists of the late Slobodan Milosevic, who died in detention at the Hague war crimes prison before del Ponte could obtain a conviction, had signalled it wanted to comply. Karadzic's arrest was one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards European Union (EU) membership, which most of its people desire. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the arrest of Karadzic “proves the determination of the new Serbian government to achieve full cooperation with the ICTY. It is also very important for Serbia's European aspirations."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Serbian authorities for taking a "decisive step toward ending impunity" of those indicted for crimes in Balkan conflicts. He furthermore called the arrest “a historic moment for the victims, who have waited 13 years for Mr. Karadzic to be brought to justice."
Munira Subasic, head of a Srebrenica widow’s association, said "[t]he arrest of Radovan Karadzic is confirmation that every criminal will eventually face justice," adding the hope that "people who had to keep quiet because of Karadzic will start revealing the locations of mass graves and let us find the truth about our beloved ones."
Meanwhile, Serb militant nationalists have reacted in fury over the arrest of Karadzic, whom they still consider a national saviour following the collapse of Yugoslavia. "This is payback to the EU for bringing this new government to power," said Aleksandar Vucic of the nationalist Radicals, one of Serbia's strongest parties. "Karadzic is a Serbian hero. There will be a strong backlash."
Source: Reuters
