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U.N. tribunal finds former Bosnia Serb leader guilty of genocide U.N. tribunal finds former Bosnia Serb leader guilty of genocide
(35 minutes later)
A former Bosnian Serb leader was found guilty of genocide and other charges Thursday for his roles in deadly campaigns during the country’s war in the 1990s, including the massacres in Srebrenica, as an international tribunal announced a long-awaited reckoning for Europe’s bloodiest chapter since World War II. A former Bosnian Serb leader was found guilty of genocide and other charges Thursday for his role in deadly campaigns during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, including the massacres of thousands in Srebrenica, as an international tribunal announced a long-awaited reckoning in Europe’s bloodiest chapter since World War II.
Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of charges including genocide in connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave. Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of 10 charges including genocide in connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave near the end of a three-year war.
In an earlier ruling at The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found that Karadzic was not held accountable for genocide linked to campaigns to expel Bosnian Muslims and ethnic Croats from villages during the war that raged from 1992 to 1995 and claimed more than 100,000 lives. [Karadzic remains a hero for some]
Karadzic could face life in prison. Karadzic, 70, was sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which is nearing the end of its cases investigating alleged atrocities and other crimes from the country’s meltdown. More than 100,000 people died in the three-sided Bosnian conflict among Bosnian Serbs, ethnic Croats and Muslims.
Karadzic — both a political leader and commander of Bosnian Serb forces — was accused of leading some of the worst atrocities of the war. The 70-year-old Karadzic claimed that he only sought to protect ethnic Serbs. The court’s ruling placed widespread blame on Karadzic for directing campaigns of murder, purges and other abuses against civilians, including the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in which Serb gunners and snipers fired nearly daily from surrounding ridges.
Karadzic — both a Bosnian Serb political leader and commander of military forces — claimed he was seeking only to protect ethnic Serbs during the war. A legal adviser to Karadzic said he will appeal the court ruling.
[Timeline for Karadzic at war and on the run]
The proceedings by the U.N.-backed tribunal at The Hague have been closely watched as a potentially significant step in applying international law to investigations of alleged war crimes and other abuses against civilians.
Karadzic — who was indicted in 1995 but on the run until his capture in 2008 — was the most senior Bosnian Serb figure to face prosecution at the court, which has spent more than two decades probing the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Still awaiting trial are Karadzic’s military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and ethnic Serb political firebrand Vojislav Seselj.
In 2006, former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell at The Hague before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial.
Karadzic was among the most-wanted fugitives from the Balkan wars until he was captured in Belgrade in 2008. At the time, he was posing as a New Age healer — with a beard, shaggy hair and oversized glasses — going by the alias, Dragan Dabic.
The Karadzic convictions could serve to strengthen the credibility and reach of other international tribunals, including the International Criminal Court. On Monday, the ICC convicted a former Congo militia leader of war crimes carried out in the neighboring Central African Republic.
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