Radovan Karadzic, one of the worst mass-murders of the post-WWII era, has been captured, or, perhaps more properly, has been allowed to be captured. Karadzic was responsible for orchestrating the murders of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan Wars.
A close friend of my family grew up in a small Bosnian city during the war. She lived in basements, and came up dodging sniper fire and grenades only when they couldn't wait any longer to find food and water. Her mother suffers osteoporosis from years of malnutrition. He brother-in-law died of complications of war wounds. Her father, now dead of other causes, was in his home village at the beginning of the war. The Serbian army came to the village and separated the women from the men and boys. He took off running behind the women and escaped into the woods, while all the remaining males were shot to death.
The Balkan Wars and the genocides they produced are still an open wound in Europe, but Serbia is apparently ready to join the European community and finally allowed Karadzic to be arrested.
Oh, and guess what he's been up to...
That's right, he grew a beard and has been practicing alternative medicine. Draw your own conclusions.
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Please, don't make it look like Serbia was the only "bad guy" in Balkan wars.
Bosnia and Albania had their own share of war crimes. Like about 40 people (including women and children) executed by KLA ( http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cahier/kosovo/hrw101998-en ). Or alleged kidnappings and murders to harvest organs.
Such crimes are not widely publicized, because Bosnia and Albania are "good guys" now.
Two down, one to go. And while I am generally anti-death penalty (but not dogmatically so) and think of myself as a rationalist person, and while it is the civilized thing to do to give him a fair trial, I don't think many tears outside the Serbian extreme right would be shed if someone decided to give him a bit of Geoghan-Dahmer therapy in prison.
Alex:
I think it's a matter of public record that there were no angels in that conflict. However, the Serbian leaders were the ones who dragged it out and committed some of the worst atrocities like Srebrenica.
I don't believe I did any such thing. I'm happy they got the murderous bastard. That others are also murderous bastards doesn't change anything.
I have mixed feelings on this. It's good that Karadzic was captured.
However, the current International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is quite clearly corrupt and biased against Serbs. It would be much better if a real neutral court tried and sentenced him.
I've researched this issue quite a bit. Trial against Milosevic was my research project in university so I read a lot of transcripts of ICTY court proceedings. Basically, it was a show trial. For example, witnesses were allowed to rant about racial inferiority (!!) of Serbs and give clearly contradictory evidence without any repercussions. And it's not that there was not enough material to convict Milosevic.
Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramush_Haradinaj which is known to commit war crimes was recently acquitted of all charges.
@Alex Besogonov:
According to a detailed 1995 report about the war made by the Central Intelligence Agency, 90% of the war crimes of the Bosnian War were committed by Serbs.
83 percent of civilian victims of the war were Bosnian Muslims, 10 percent were Serbs and more than 5 percent were Croats, followed by a small number of others such as Albanians or Romani people.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_war
So while the Serbs weren't the only "bad guys", they certainly were the most bad of the villains of this war.
Does the fact that I laughed my head off when I heard this on the news last night make me a bad person?
One of the worst mass-murderers since WWII? Maybe if you limit yourself to Europe. It is not not hard to think of quite a number who are responsible for FAR more deliberate killings of non-combatants. Sadly there have been a lot of mass murders since world leaders said "never again" in response to the Holocaust.
That being said, the reason why Karadzic is not one of the worst has nothing to do with the lack of will, but rather the lack of means. He would have outdid Hitler if he could have gotten away with it.
"Please, don't make it look like Serbia was the only 'bad guy' in Balkan wars."
As someone else has already pointed out the vast majority of mass-murders in that particular was were done by the Serbs. That statement almost looks like someone pointing out that there were Jewish murders in World War II.
"allowed Karadzic to be arrested"
???
So there was a conspiracy by the Serbian government to hide him?
Will we have to hide our current leaders when they are brought up on war crimes? Nah...they will never be charged.
What is wrong with growing a beard?
By most accounts, the government has had the ability to apprehend him easily.
From his name, it's quite safe to conclude that Alex Besogonov originates (directly or ancestrally) from an Orthodox Christian country. Most of the Orthodox countries supported Serbia, passively or actively, during the Balkan wars. So it is difficult for him, emotionally, to admit that the Serbs were the main bad guys in the former Yugoslavia. It's much easier for him to say that they were all bad, that all sides committed atrocities, than to admit that an Orthodox Christian country waged a genocidal war against its neighbours. The Balkan wars in the 1990's were almost entirely about Serbian hegemony.
Since Mr Karadzic does not think he will get a fair trial in the Hague, I suggest they send him to Bosnia. He should stand trail in Sarajevo, after all that was his home.It is also the city he targeted from his mountain top points and killed 12.000.00 innocent civilians. Like millions of people around the globe, I am a witness, after all how can we forget that we all watched the Bosnian war live on CNN?..
Who needs witnesses?
Now it is time to get Mladic however it does not stop there.
I think that many countries who took in refugees from the former Yugoslavia should examine their immigration records for possible war criminals. Canada, United State and many European countries accepted people from the war zone under humanitarian grounds.Many would be surprised how many Karadzic/Mladic war aids have become our neighbors!
What puzzles me is who really caught Karadzic? I do not buy the story out of Belgrade.
Although Karadzic grew a beard and wore glasses, I cannot believe that the people of Serbia could not recognize him by his voice, his profession, his poetry.. after all, the people of Serbia still call him "God" !!
I hope the guy who caught Karadzic got his 5 million... cheers