Karadzic Arrested in Belgrade

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been a fugitive for over a decade. The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has indicted him twice: first for killing at least 7,500 men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995, and second for shelling Sarajevo in May and June of that same year, using UN peacekeepers as human shields. Yesterday, Serbian authorities slapped handcuffs on him, and he’s headed to trial.

The arrest is important for the Serbian government because it is desperate to join the European Union like its neighbors have done. One of the roadblocks has been the willingness of various members of the security services to look the other way when it came to dealing with the 1992-1995 war’s atrocities. This appears to have changed with a new government in Belgrade. Some folks had to know who he was and where he was (turns out he was working in an alternative medicine clinic). Their protection no longer sufficed.

Whatever the reason for the change, it appears to have paid off already. Reuters reports, “EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said his arrest showed Belgrade was cooperating fully with the UN war crimes tribunal. An EU foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday was to discuss closer ties with the new pro-Western government.”

Only two men with Hague tribunal indictments remain at large. The BBC describes them as “Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander, who is accused with Mr Karadzic of genocide for the shelling of Sarajevo, and the massacre of Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. And Goran Hadzic, who is accused of war crimes against Croats in the city of Vukovar. But many more war crimes cases will be handled by local courts, once The Hague tribunal winds up its work, in 2010.”

Chief prosecutor for the tribunal, Serge Brammertz, said, “This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade. 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.”

Certain neo-conservative Americans should take note.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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