This is justice?
By Clay Scott - 02/04/07
The new secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, was in the Netherlands the other day. He made a quick visit to The Hague, and took the opportunity to call for Bosnian Serb fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic to surrender to the International War Crimes Tribunal there.
What a joke.
Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, along with his hatchet man, Mladic, have been at large since 1995, and it’s not as if they’ve been hiding in the caves of Tora Bora. Karadzic is currently thought to be in Russia, Mladic in Bosnia.
Both men were indicted for their role in the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica of more than 8,000 Bosnian men (more than the number of Kurds gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja, and nearly three times the death toll of the September 11 attacks.) And the two have a lot more blood on their hands than Srebrenica. Radovan Karadzic bears ultimate responsibility for much of the violence unleashed during the Bosnian war, a war in which more than 50,000 civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless, while countless women were systematically raped.
At the much-heralded Dayton Peace Accords, in the fall of 1995, then-president Clinton said solemnly that “the healing process” could not begin until Karadizic and Mladic were brought to justice. He referred repeatedly to “the will of the International Community.” President Clinton was later honored with the first Dayton Peace Prize. Someone even found a Bosnian composer to dedicate an aria to him for his role in bringing peace to Bosnia. Meanwhile, Karadzic and Mladic are still at large, drinking plum brandy with their cronies. As for the international community, I learned in Bosnia that, if such an entity exists, it certainly has no will.
Several months after the Dayton accords, at a time when Karadzic and Mladic were considered the most wanted men in the world, a colleague and I came upon Karadzic in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka. He had no more than four lightly-armed body guards with him, and, to our surprise, he agreed to an interview. It is difficult to know what to ask a mass murderer, and when I questioned his role in the Srebrenica massacre he cursed us and stormed off. A few minutes later we saw him sitting down to a lunch of veal cutlet and white wine at a hotel restaurant. A mile or two down the road my colleague and I came to a NATO base, and stopped to talk to the commanding officer, a British major named Frank Pauley. I told him he might be interested to learn that indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic was just sitting down to lunch, and that he was protected only by four men with side arms.
“Karadzic?” he said, feigning ignorance. “I know there’s a list of war criminals somewhere, but I’m not sure Mr. Karadzic’s name is on it. Perhaps if you were to speak with the commanding officer in Sipovo” (a couple of hours drive away) “he might be able to help you.”
Since Major Pauley did not seem stupid, it was clear he was under orders to leave Karadzic alone. In the years following our abbreviated interview with Karadzic, he and Mladic have been seen repeatedly, but attempts by the “International Community” to arrest them have been half-hearted at best. It’s not clear why this is. According to one prevalent rumor, Karadzic agreed to step down as the Bosnian Serb leader in return for guarantees he would never be arrested.
What is clear is that the arrest of the two fugitives, if it ever comes about, would truly be part of the “healing process” that Bill Clinton and others spoke of so sanctimoniously over a decade ago.
When I was in Bosnia during and after the war, I met countless victims of violence and trauma whose physical and emotional wounds have almost certainly not healed. I will never forget the faces of the women, old men and children from Srebrenica, in the days after the massacre. They were the indescribably tough and stoic faces of villagers who had lost husbands, fathers and sons, yet could look me in the eye and talk about it.
“The men who did this,” one woman said calmly, “when they bring them to justice, we can rest.”
Clay Scott is a veteran, well-traveled reporter who lives in Helena.
What a joke.
Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, along with his hatchet man, Mladic, have been at large since 1995, and it’s not as if they’ve been hiding in the caves of Tora Bora. Karadzic is currently thought to be in Russia, Mladic in Bosnia.
Both men were indicted for their role in the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica of more than 8,000 Bosnian men (more than the number of Kurds gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja, and nearly three times the death toll of the September 11 attacks.) And the two have a lot more blood on their hands than Srebrenica. Radovan Karadzic bears ultimate responsibility for much of the violence unleashed during the Bosnian war, a war in which more than 50,000 civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless, while countless women were systematically raped.
At the much-heralded Dayton Peace Accords, in the fall of 1995, then-president Clinton said solemnly that “the healing process” could not begin until Karadizic and Mladic were brought to justice. He referred repeatedly to “the will of the International Community.” President Clinton was later honored with the first Dayton Peace Prize. Someone even found a Bosnian composer to dedicate an aria to him for his role in bringing peace to Bosnia. Meanwhile, Karadzic and Mladic are still at large, drinking plum brandy with their cronies. As for the international community, I learned in Bosnia that, if such an entity exists, it certainly has no will.
Several months after the Dayton accords, at a time when Karadzic and Mladic were considered the most wanted men in the world, a colleague and I came upon Karadzic in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka. He had no more than four lightly-armed body guards with him, and, to our surprise, he agreed to an interview. It is difficult to know what to ask a mass murderer, and when I questioned his role in the Srebrenica massacre he cursed us and stormed off. A few minutes later we saw him sitting down to a lunch of veal cutlet and white wine at a hotel restaurant. A mile or two down the road my colleague and I came to a NATO base, and stopped to talk to the commanding officer, a British major named Frank Pauley. I told him he might be interested to learn that indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic was just sitting down to lunch, and that he was protected only by four men with side arms.
“Karadzic?” he said, feigning ignorance. “I know there’s a list of war criminals somewhere, but I’m not sure Mr. Karadzic’s name is on it. Perhaps if you were to speak with the commanding officer in Sipovo” (a couple of hours drive away) “he might be able to help you.”
Since Major Pauley did not seem stupid, it was clear he was under orders to leave Karadzic alone. In the years following our abbreviated interview with Karadzic, he and Mladic have been seen repeatedly, but attempts by the “International Community” to arrest them have been half-hearted at best. It’s not clear why this is. According to one prevalent rumor, Karadzic agreed to step down as the Bosnian Serb leader in return for guarantees he would never be arrested.
What is clear is that the arrest of the two fugitives, if it ever comes about, would truly be part of the “healing process” that Bill Clinton and others spoke of so sanctimoniously over a decade ago.
When I was in Bosnia during and after the war, I met countless victims of violence and trauma whose physical and emotional wounds have almost certainly not healed. I will never forget the faces of the women, old men and children from Srebrenica, in the days after the massacre. They were the indescribably tough and stoic faces of villagers who had lost husbands, fathers and sons, yet could look me in the eye and talk about it.
“The men who did this,” one woman said calmly, “when they bring them to justice, we can rest.”
Clay Scott is a veteran, well-traveled reporter who lives in Helena.
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Reader Comments:
Thoughtful1 wrote on Feb 4, 2007 1:21 AM:
" If I remember history correctly, there were massacres on both side of this conflict. It has been going on for several centuries. I'm not condoning genocide, far from it, but I do believe that our nation's best interests were not served well when chosing sides in this war.
We "empowered" a Muslim faction over the historically lawful Christian majority. Wouldn't you fight if your lands were being invaded by an Islamist horde?
By all means, bring war criminals to justice, just keep your Mohamad-centric views to yourself. I'm sure there are thousands of Serbians whose physical and emotional wounds are not healed either. "
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vlgagic wrote on Feb 9, 2007 12:32 PM: