Karadzic found guilty of genocide in Bosnian war
Ex-leader is jailed for 40 years for his role in the slaughter
THE HAGUE: A UN court has convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges and sentenced him to 40 years in prison for orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout Bosnia’s 199295 war that left 100,000 people dead.
As he sat down after hearing his sentence, Karadzic slumped slightly in his chair, but showed little emotion. He plans to appeal the convictions.
The UN court found Karadzic guilty of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in Europe’s worst mass murder since the Holocaust.
Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic was the only person in the Bosnian Serb leadership with the power to halt the genocide, but instead gave an order for prisoners to be transported from one location to another to be killed.
In a carefully planned operation, Serb forces transported Muslim men to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before dumping their bodies into mass graves.
Kwon said Karadzic and his military commander, General Ratko Mladic, intended “that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed”.
Karadzic was also held crim- inally responsible for murder, attacking civilians and terror for overseeing the deadly 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the war and for taking hostage UN peacekeepers.
However, the court acquitted Karadzic in a second genocide charge, for a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces.
Peter Robinson, part of Karadzic’s legal team, said he would appeal.
“Dr Karadzic is disappointed. He’s astonished,” Mr Robinson told reporters. “He feels the trial chamber took inference instead of evidence in reaching the conclusions that it did.”
Karadzic had faced a total of 11 charges and a maximum life sentence, but was given 40 years’ imprisonment.
Prosecutors held Karadzic responsible as a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, which are blamed for the worst atrocities of the war. The 70-year-old Karadzic had insisted he was innocent and says his wartime actions were intended to protect Serbs.
The trial is hugely significant for the UN tribunal and the development of international law. Karadzic is the most senior Bos- nian Serb leader to face prosecution in The Hague.
Karadzic’s conviction will most likely strengthen international law on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control.
“Victims and their families have waited for over two decades to see Karadzic’s day of reckoning,” Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“The Karadzic verdict sends a powerful signal that those who order atrocities cannot simply wait out justice,” Ms Singh said.
In Bosnia, which has remained divided since the war, posters displaying Karadzic’s photo and saying “We are all Radovan” were plastered on walls in several towns in the Serb part of the country. Dozens of people gathered in a park in the Bosnian Serb town of Doboj to offer support to Karadzic.
In Sarajevo, Amra Misic, 49, said: “I took a day off to watch the verdict as I was waiting for this for 20 years.
“I wish him a long life,” she said, referring to the fact that Karadzic is 70 years old and has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.