Ex-Serb leader guilty of war crimes during Bosnia war: UN

A UN court has convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of involvement in the Serb atrocities that left over 100,000 people dead throughout the Bosnian war in 1992-95.

On Thursday, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found Karadzic, 70, guilty of genocide and nine other charges, sentencing him to 40 years behind bars.

UN judges said Karadzic “bears individual criminal responsibility” for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which some 8,000 Muslim boys and men were slaughtered in the course of four days. He also committed war crimes in Bosnian towns during the war.

Karadzic was at the time a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces, who stand accused of the worst atrocities during the bloody war.

The Srebrenica carnage, which is known to be the worst in Europe since World War II, took place after Bosnian Serbs ran over the Bosnian town, even though it was formally declared a UN-protected area.

Following the war, Karadzic had been on the run for more than a decade before he was arrested in 2008. He is the highest-ranking figure to stand trial at The Hague-based tribunal over the Bosnia war.

Presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said the Sarajevo siege by Bosnian Serb forces, which lasted for three years, could not have happened if it were not for Karadzic’s support.

“The chamber is therefore convinced that the accused used this campaign of sniping and shelling causing terror among the civilian population in Sarajevo as a means of exerting pressure on the Bosnian Muslim leaders and the international community in pursuit of his political goals,” said the senior judge.

Karadzic was, however, acquitted by The Hague tribunal of a first count of genocide in connection with the Bosnian municipalities. He is open to appeal the Thursday ruling.

All through the lengthy trial process that began in 2009, Karadzic denied the charges against him and claimed he was an advocate of peace.

‘No one above the law’

Also on Thursday, Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz hailed the ruling against Karadzic and said “justice has been done.”

“Thousands came here to tell their stories and courageously confront their tormentors. Today with this conviction that trust has been honored,” Brammertz said in a statement.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also said the “hugely significant” conviction shows “no one is above the law.”

“Karadzic master-minded the confinement, rape, torture and murder of thousands of people; the shelling of civilians; the siege of Sarajevo; and the extensive destruction and plunder of property, including Muslim and Roman Catholic places of worship,” added the UN rights chief.

Last July, declassified US cables revealed that the US, Britain and France contributed to the Sarajevo bloodshed, The Guardian Reported.

Serb troops overran the area despite the presence of hundreds of Western troops tasked with protecting innocent civilians.

The declassified documents unveiled that prior to the mass killings, Washington had called on the UN peacekeeping forces in Srebrenica to pull back from safe areas, a decision backed by Paris and London, according to The Guardian.

Karadzic verdict ‘disappointing’

However, survivors of the Srebrenica massacre and the families of the victims expressed dissatisfaction with the court ruling, which they said was not tough enough.

“I wish there was capital punishment,” said Vasva Smajlovic, 73, who was watching the court session live on TV, adding, “My husband is dead for 20 years and Karadzic is still alive. At least I expected a lifetime (in) prison.”

“This came too late,” sighed Bida Smajlovic, who lives in a home overlooking 7,000 tombstones where the victims were buried.

“There is no sentence that could compensate for the horrors we went through or for the tears of only one mother, let alone thousands,” she added.

Prosecutors have been under fire for not bringing charges against two other leaders of Bosnia war-era who have since died -- Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.

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