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Radovan Karadžić

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Image:Evstafiev-Radovan Karadzic 3MAR94.jpg Radovan Karadžić (Serbian Cyrillic: Радован Караџић) (born June 19, 1945) is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist indicted for war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. There is currently an outstanding international arrest warrant against Karadžić following the Rule 61 of ICTY which concluded that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused has committed the crimes in question including genocide. The United States government has since offered a $5 million award for his and Ratko Mladić's arrests.

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[edit] Early life

Karadžić was born in Petnjica near Šavnik, Montenegro, Yugoslavia. His father, Vuko, had been a member of the Chetniks - the remnants of the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. His father was in jail for much of his son's childhood. Radovan Karadžić moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1960 to pursue his studies in psychiatry and work in the Koševo Hospital. He also became a poet and fell under the influence of the Serbian writer Dobrica Ćosić, who encouraged him to go into politics.

[edit] Political life

In 1989 he co-founded the Serbian Democratic Party (Srpska Demokratska Stranka) in Bosnia-Herzegovina which aimed at gathering the Republic's Serb community and leading them in joining Croatian Serbs in seceding from their respective countries and joining Serbia and Montenegro therby forming a Greater Serbia.

A separate Serb Assembly was founded on October 24, 1991, in order to exculsively represent the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The leading Serb political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by Radovan Karadžić, organized the creation of "Serb autonomous provinces" (SAOs) within Bosnia and the establishment of an assembly to represent them. In November 1991, the Bosnian Serbs held a referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. On January 9, 1992, the Bosnian Serb Assembly proclaimed the Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Република српског народа Босне и Херцеговина / Republika srpskog naroda Bosne i Hercegovine). On February 28, 1992, the constitution of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted and declared that the state's territory included Serb autonomous regions, municipalities, and other Serbian ethnic entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it was declared to be a part of the federal Yugoslav state.

On February 29, and March 1, 1992 a referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia was held. The Serbs boycotted the referendum while Bosniaks and Croats turned out, and 64% of eligable voters voted 98% in favor of independence. On April 6 1992, Bosnia was recognized by the UN as an independent state. Karadžić became the first president of the Bosnian Serb administration in Pale on or about 13 May 1992 after the breakup of the Yugoslavia. At the time he assumed this position, his de jure powers, as described in the constitution of the Bosnian Serb administration, included, but were not limited to, commanding the army of the Bosnian Serb administration in times of war and peace and having the authority to appoint, promote and discharge officers of the army.

Despite being a supporter of the Greater Serbia idea, Karadžić has not been hesitant to find support among fellow Orthodox countries such as Russia and Greece. In February 1994, for instance, he secretly contacted the Greek government and proposed the creation of some sort of Greek-Serbian confederation based on the known Serbian-Greek Friendship, an idea which Milošević had also proposed in 1992.

He is accused of having ordered the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks and Croats.

[edit] Gen Mladic Warned Karadzic about Bosnia Genocide

Both highest ranking Bosnian Serb politicians, Radovan Karadzic and Momcilo Krajisnik, were warned by Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic, also indicted on genocide charges, that their plans could not be committed without committing genocide.

People are not little stones, or keys in someone's pocket, that can be moved from one place to another just like that... Therefore, we cannot precisely arrange for only Serbs to stay in one part of the country while removing others painlessly. I do not know how Mr Krajisnik and Mr Karadzic will explain that to the world. That is genocide, said Mladic. references

[edit] Fugitive

Authorities narrowly missed capturing Karadzic in 1995, when he was an invitee of the United Nations. During his visit, he was nearly handed a service of process, but this was swatted down by security before it could reach his hand. The Courts ruled that Karadzic had immunity under the United Nations "Headquarters Agreement". [Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232 (2d Cir. 1995)]. Since 1996, he has been a fugitive indicted for war crimes by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; the Interpol warrant cites assault, crimes against humanity, crimes against life and health, genocide, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions, murder, plunder, and violations of the laws or customs of war. The Indictment [1] charges Karadžić on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility (Article 7(1) of the Statute) and superior criminal responsibility (Article 7(3) of the Statute) with:

  • Two counts of genocide (Article 4 of the Statute - genocide, complicity in genocide);
  • 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 or customs 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 - wilful killing).

In his defense, his supporters say that he is no more guilty than any other war-time political leader. His seeming ability to evade capture for over 8 years has made him a local hero among the Bosnian Serbs, despite an alleged deal with Richard Holbrooke. In 2001, hundreds of supporters demonstrated in support of Karadžić in his home town.

In March 2003, his mother, Jovanka, publicly urged him not to surrender.

In November 2004, British defence officials conceded that military action was unlikely to be successful in bringing Karadžić and other suspects to trial, and that putting political pressure on Balkan governments would be more likely to succeed.

In 2005 Bosnian Serb leaders called on Karadžić to surrender, stating that Bosnia and Serbia could not move ahead economically or politically while he remained at large. After a failed raid in May, on July 7 2005 NATO troops arrested Karadžić's son, Aleksandar (Saša) Karadžić but released him after 10 days [2]. On July 28, Karadžić's wife, Liljana Zelen Karadžić, made a call for him to surrender [3] after, in her words, "enormous pressure" had been put onto her[4].

[edit] Bibliography

  • 1990: Crna bajka, Svjetlost, Sarajevo
  • 1992: Rat u Bosni: kako je počelo
  • 1994: Ima čuda nema čuda
  • 2001: Od Ludog koplja do Crne bajke, Dobrica knjiga, Novi Sad
  • 2004: Čudesna hronika noći, IGAM, Belgrade
  • 2005: Pod levu sisu veka, Književna zajednica "Veljko Vidaković", Niš

[edit] Quotes

  • This what you are doing is not good.This is the path that you want to take Bosnia and Hercegovina on, the same highway of hell and death that Slovenia and Croatia went. Don't think that you won't take Bosnia and Hercegovina into hell and the Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here.-Radovan Karadžić speaking at the Bosnian parliament, October 14, 1991. (The term "Muslim people" refers to the people today known as Bosniaks.)
  • "The Serbs have only two friends, God and the Greeks." - President Dr. Radovan Karadzic during a rally organized to express support for Serbians in Athens, Greece, 1995

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

bs:Radovan Karadžić bg:Радован Караджич da:Radovan Karadžić de:Radovan Karadžić fr:Radovan Karadžić hr:Radovan Karadžić it:Radovan Karadžić nl:Radovan Karadžić no:Radovan Karadžić pl:Radovan Karadžić ru:Радован Караджич sl:Radovan Karadžić sr:Радован Караџић sh:Radovan Karadžić fi:Radovan Karadžić sv:Radovan Karadžić tl:Radovan Karadžić

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