Tuesday, July 22, 2008

ICTY's Most Wanted Now in Dock

Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Serbia yesterday. Karadzic was the President of the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb breakaway statelet, during the war in the former Yugoslavia; he stands accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, particularly for his connection to the massacre at Srebrenica. Since his indictment, Karadzic had foiled attempts by NATO and the Serbian government to capture him for thirteen years. His capture is significant not only for international justice, but also for Serbia's prospects of acceding to the European Union.

There is good coverage of his capture in the mainstream media and also at War Crimes Blog. However, one of the best sources is a blog entitled "Finding Karadzic" which has covered the manhunt for the past several years.

With Karadzic in the dock, only Ratko Mladic, the General who oversaw the massacre of approximately 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica, remains at large in Serbia. Will he be next?

2 comments:

Cleitus the Black said...

One has to wonder just a bit at the timing of this "discovery" - coming on the heels of a Serbian election that has put Boris Tadic back in office and kept the country on course for eventual membership in the EU... Karadzic is merely a sacrificial lamb tossed on the altar of EU membership... Mladic is doubtless soon to follow; unless, of course, the ICTY gives Serbia a clean bill of health on compliance based solely on the "capture" of Karadzic, allowing the Dutch wash their hands of the blood of Srbrenica and ratify Serbia's EU accession plan.

Diodotus said...

It's a great example of a country being socialized into a "civilized" international order through symbolic gestures. This is significant. No, it doesn't bring back the dead. And we'll see how civilized the response is within Serbia and the RS...

 
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