Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

SERBIA: Karadzic Arrest Opens Doors to EU

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jul 22 2008 (IPS) - One of the most wanted men in the world, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested Monday night by Serbian security forces.

“The Hague indictee Radovan Karadzic was located and arrested in the action performed by Serbian security forces,” the office of President Boris Tadic announced. The statement added that Karadzic was immediately handed over to the Special Court in Belgrade, which deals with war crimes and organised crime.

No details on where and how Karadzic was arrested were released. The date for his extradition to the United Nations-founded International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is yet to be announced.

“This arrest is something that will have historical significance,” human rights activist Natasa Kandic told IPS. “There was no political will for such a move until now,” she added. Kandic was referring to the fact that Serbia got a new government earlier this month, this time led by the reform-oriented and pro-European Democratic Party.

Previous governments since late 2003 were led by the conservative and nationalist Vojislav Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia, whose political priorities were the Kosovo issue and close ties with Russia.

“This arrest is extremely good news for deep moral reasons,” Zoran Zivkovic, short time pro-reform prime minister in 2003 told Belgrade B92 radio. “Serbia and its people have to learn the truth about war crimes committed in their name in order to move forward.”

Karadzic (64) and his wartime commander Ratko Mladic have been indicted for genocide in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. More than 7,500 Muslim men and boys were killed by Mladic’s forces in a matter of days in Srebrenica in July 1995. It was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

The two are also indicted for the siege and shelling of Bosnian capital Sarajevo that lasted for three-and-a-half years and took 10,000 lives, more than the German occupation of the city in World War II.

The ICTY indictment speaks of the massacres in Bosnia as “scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.”

Karadzic, a psychiatrist by training, went into hiding a year after the war in Bosnia ended with the internationally sponsored Dayton peace accords. Karadzic was the leader of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia, who opposed Bosnia’s secession from former Yugoslavia. He was strongly backed by Belgrade at the time. The regime of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic generously helped Bosnian Serbs in the war against Muslims and Croats.

The conflict took more than 100,000 lives, mostly of non-Serbs, and left scars that have still not healed. More than 1.8 million people were forced to leave their homes, and few have returned.

Despite efforts by the international community to patch the dismembered nation together again, the three ethnic groups lead completely separate lives, and few signs of reconciliation are visible. One group’s heroes are regarded as the other’s war criminals.

For many Serbs, both in Bosnia and in Serbia, Karadzic and Mladic are still idols of bravery and defiance of a biased international community. Mladic is still out of reach of justice.

Handing over of the war crimes suspects to the ICTY represented a major obstacle for Serbia to the long sought goal of joining the European Union (EU). The arrests and extraditions remained preconditions for Serbia’s access to the EU. Analysts say now things might change.

“The arrest will open European doors for Serbia,” analyst Misa Brkic told IPS. “This country needs financial and political support for the reforms it has undertaken since 2000 (when Milosevic was ousted from power) to succeed. The only way to do this is to join the international community completely, and this (arrest) is the step that can lead to the right direction.”

More than 15 billion dollars of foreign aid and investment has been pumped into Serbia since 2000, but economic recovery has been slow, and mostly stalled due to political instability since the first pro-European prime minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in 2003.

The arrest of Karadzic was, as expected, not welcomed by the ultranationalists, particularly the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which supported the Milosevic regime in the 1990s.

“This is horrible news, and today (Monday) is the saddest day in Serbian history,” SRS leader Aleksandar Vucic told Belgrade media. “Serbia can disappear with such decisions of the treacherous Democrats who will sell it to foreigners in no time.”

In Bosnia, there were celebrations on the streets of Sarajevo. “The news brings relief to the families of victims, although it is coming somehow late,” head of the three-member Bosnian presidency Haris Silajdzic told local media. “This is a good day for international justice.”