As the UN war crimes tribunal of Radovan Karadzic gets underway, we are already getting a taste of the grandstanding and manoeuvring that he is famous for. The judges have already accused Karadzic of trying to obstruct the course of justice.
Sniff the noose
This “poet, psychiatrist to Sarajevo football club, confidante of presidents and all-around statesman” is on trial for some very serious crimes, not least of which is playing his part in Europe’s worst genocide since the Nazi Holocaust. Karadzic stands accused of two counts of genocide, one relating to the massacre of more than 7,000 men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica in July 1995, and nine further charges of war crimes in relation to the murderous ethnic war in Bosnia during 1992-95. These include:
- Five counts of crimes against humanity (Article 5 of the Statute – extermination, murder, persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, persecutions, inhumane acts (forcible transfer));
- Three counts of violations of the laws of war (Article 3 of the Statute – murder, unlawfully inflicting terror upon civilians, taking hostages);
- One count of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions (Article 2 of the Statute – willful killing).
- Unlawful transfer of civilians because of religious or national identity.
- The United States government offered a $5 million reward for his and Ratko Mladić’s arrests
The Times reports opinions of the victims of Karadzic who dearly want some justice to come out of this trial:
Munira Subasic, 62, whose husband and brother were murdered at Srebrenica, said: “They cannot do this like Milosevic. He died and juctice died with him. We know there is enough evidence against Karadzic and we pray it will not take time because we need justice.
“My message to Europe is that there was a Holocaust against the Jews and a genocide aginst Muslims in Bosnia becuase we were in a minority. Everyone has a right to live and everyone has a right to justice. We have those same rights.”
When Saddam Hussain was tried in Baghdad, he employed similar tactics of walk-outs, no-shows and defiance to undermine the legitimacy of the court. Saddam’s attempts to disrupt the court proceedings failed and he was hanged in December 2006. Karadzic will not suffer the same fate as Saddam because the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague does not have the power to pass the death penalty.
Which is a shame because I personally would like to see Karadzic hanged for his crimes. Although I believe that capital punishment should be abolished in general, I am not instinctively ”liberal” enough to want people who are guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity escape that punishment. In the case of Karadzic, if he were to be tried anywhere outside Europe, he would be facing the death penalty.
Radovan Karadzic’s crimes were no worse than Saddam Hussain’s, I believe he should be hanged as well. What do you think?
3 Comments
Like you, i am also instinctively opposed to capital punishment – should he be hanged? no.. Should he be dropped from a low flying helicopter into the heart of a Bosnian Muslim village? Yes….
No. Bang this foppish beast up in solitary for the rest of his life.
If one opposes the death penalty (as I do), I do feel one must be consistent in this position. However, I do understand why some would feel that capital punishment fitted the crimes in this case and similar cases.
Off-topic; but something that nags at me:
A lecturer in Moral Philosophy I once had (long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) bore an uncanny likeness to Karadzic in the photograph, above.
Worrying, that.