Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The other side of international justice

July 23, 2008


The other side of international justice


THE ARREST of Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted men, on Monday, 13 years after he was first indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal, should spark a sense of satisfaction to all of those who are interested in ensuring supremacy of international justice around the world.
Karadzic, 63, faces genocide charges for his role in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, and for organising the siege of Sarajevo which claimed 12,000 lives.
The UN war crimes tribunal, which says it has concrete evidence of Karadzic's guilt, has described him as the mastermind of "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."
Karadzic was detained by Serb forces inside the country on Monday, according to Serbian President Boris Tadic, for whom the arrest is a significant breakthrough. Serbia has faced international isolation while Karadzic and fellow war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander, have remained at large. The European Union has made their hand-over a condition for any progress towards Serbia's membership in the bloc.
According to UN prosecutors, both Karadzic and Mladic and other Serbs suspected of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia were protected by Bosnian Serb nationalists. Karadzic's arrest is seen to have made possible after Serb nationalists lost power in Serbia when the pro-Western Tadic government took over last month.
Some reports speculate that those members of the Serbian security services who knew where Karadzic was hiding either passed on that information, or simply stepped aside to allow pro-Western agents to arrest him.
The replacement of the old head of Serbian intelligence, Rade Bulatovic, with a new man, Sasha Vukadinovic, must have played a significant role. says the BBC.
Karadzic led the self-proclaimed Serb administration of Bosnia in the early 1990s which resisted the country’s independence and suppressed other ethnic groups in some of the worst violence that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.
His trial will be a very important event for the families of the victims of massacres and suppression carried out under Karadzic's directions. They have waited for his arrest for over a decade.
Technically, his arrest underlines that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice. Still at large in the Serbian case is Karadzic's ally Ratko Mladic, who is also indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Only when he is arrested and tried would there be full accountability for the genocide at Srebrenica.
Also at large is Croatian Serb ex-rebel leader Goran Hadzic.
So far so good for Serbia and its new government, which is seeking to enter mainstream life in Europe through the EU, and for all the people in the world who want justice done.
For us in the Middle East, the arrest of Karadzic — and the ongoing effort to have Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir tried on genocide charges in Darfur — are reminders of the double standards of world powers.
Why isn't anyone blamed for the death of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as the direct and indirect result of the US invasion and occupation of their country more than five years ago? Why isn't anyone held responsible for the immense suffering that has been inflicted upon the people of Afghanistan?
Why isn't anyone blamed for the killings, summary detentions, demolition of homes and other atrocities committed against the people of Palestine who are exercising their legitimate right to resist the foreign military occupation of their land?