Impunity Watch: Europe: Books

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands - On Tuesday UN Tribunal Judge O-Gon Kwon announced that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is prepared to start the trial of Bosnian-Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic on October 19, 2009. Judge Kwon said that a formal scheduling order with the final date would be filed "closer to the time."

Photo: Radovan Karadzic at The Hague. [Source: AFP]

Radovan Karadzic, a former psychologist and Bosnian politician, stands accused of eleven charges relating to his leadership role during the Bosnian war, spanning from 1992-1995. Karadzic is notoriously linked to the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, in which approximately 8,000 Bosnian-Muslim men and boys were killed. The massacre is considered to be the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, and is the only case to be termed genocide by the ICTY. Karadzic also faces charges pertaining to the forty-four month siege of Sarajevo which left roughly 12,000 people dead.

In July of 2008, sixty-four-year-old Karadzic was captured on a bus in Belgrade. He had remained undercover by posing as an alternative medicine practitioner, disguised with a heavy white beard and thick glasses.

Photo: Left - Karadzic in April 1996 / Right - Karadzic in 2008 [Source: AP]

Karadzic denied any wrong-doing during the Bosnian war. The court entered a 'not guilty' plea on his behalf after he refused to do so himself, claiming that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction.

The former politician faces numerous counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war. In particular, he is charged with the persecution of Bosnian-Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians, targeting of political leaders, intellectuals and professionals, the unlawful deportation and transfer of civilians, the unlawful shelling of civilians, unlawful appropriation and plunder of property, destruction of homes and businesses, and destruction of places of worship.

Karadzic, who has chosen to defend himself, requested last Friday that the court postpone the start of his trial for ten months so he could have adequate time for preparation. He claims the defense has "ambushed" him with thousands of irrelevant documents. At the present moment there are 938,000 pages of prosecution documents, and 161 prosecution and 175 defense witnesses to interview. Prosecution had originally intended to call some 500 witnesses, which would have taken an estimated 490 hours of examination.

Judge Kwon denied the request to postpone the trial, but ordered that prosecutors reduce the charge sheet so that the trial will be more manageable in scope. Karadzic's earlier indictment listed alleged crimes in forty-five cities and towns, but the prosecution has already reduced the number to twenty-seven.

Judge Kwon has said that the prosecution should consider excluding "incidental killings" as opposed to planned and organized murders in order to expedite the proceedings, reasoning that such deaths may be less crucial in cases where the defendant is indicted for genocide.

He said: "Further reductions are warranted...for a fair and expeditious trial."

At this point, the trial is expected to run until the end of 2012, with appeals likely running into 2013. The ICTY had initially intended all trials to be finished by 2008, and appeals by 2010, and the UN Security Council requested that the ICTY close its doors in 2010. The Security Council has, however, provided several extensions for the Karadzic case, along with others. Additionally, two war suspects remain at large, including Ratko Mladic, Karadzic's top general during the war.

The court will be able to convene only three times a week for three-and-a-half hours a day because of a shortage of courtrooms and judges. Two of the three other judges who will hear the case are already hearing trials.

On Friday Karadzic requested that the ICTY order the United States to provide documents that he believes may exonerate him by showing evidence that the United States had smuggled arms to the army of Bosnia Herzegovina through UN peacekeepers.

He said that the documents would prove "the involvement of personnel of the United States...in violation of the United Nations arms embargo on the side of Bosnian Muslim," and were relevant to the credibility of witnesses to be called on by the prosecution.

Karadzic has also sought similar orders for information against more than a dozen other countries.

Photo: Exhumation of a mass grave at Srebrenica. [Source: Reuters]