Evidence against Karadzic

[DMB]

Radovan Karadzic refuses to attend his trial at the International Court in the Hague, but it is going ahead anyway. And the first evidence (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6892144.ece)is coming out.

Mr Tieger then revealed evidence from a series of recorded phone calls from 1991 in which Mr Karadzic chillingly considered the fate of Sarajevo, the multi-ethnic Bosnian capital which Serb forces besieged for 44 months.

The phone taps record Mr Karadzic saying: "They have to know that there are 20,000 armed Serbs around Sarajevo.... it will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die. They will disappear. That people will disappear from the face of the earth."

[Ray Moscow]

I've been listening to Bosnian radio today, and they are talking about the trial a lot.

I'll probably avoid the subject with the local Bosnian Serbs.

[Worldtraveller]

Not to change the subject, but what would it take to get Chrub/Cheney dragged off to that court? :D

[Iblis waswas]

Not to change the subject, but what would it take to get Chrub/Cheney dragged off to that court? :D

The release of a lot of top secret documents that will somehow never find their way into the public domain?

[diana]

I've been listening to Bosnian radio today, and they are talking about the trial a lot.

I'll probably avoid the subject with the local Bosnian Serbs.I'd say it's probably a good idea, but I'm sure I'd be drawn inexorably to discuss it with the local Bosnian Serbs....

d

[DMB]

Not to change the subject, but what would it take to get Chrub/Cheney dragged off to that court? :D

The USA has never agreed to the setting up of the ICC. See these documents. (http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/us-un-and-international-law-8-24/us-opposition-to-the-icc-8-29.html)

The US actively encourages prosecution of foreign war criminals, but Washington does not allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute US nationals for war crimes. The job of Clint Williamson, the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, reflects this double standard of the US, since Williamson only investigates war crimes in other countries like Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

[Pendaric]

How come the guy can decide not to attend anyway? Isn't he in custody? Can't they just drag him there under guard?

[DMB]

He's not the first to behave like this. The ICC desn't compel attendance but they can appoint defence counsel for him if he doesn't turn up. However, in practice this may delay it for several months, because new counsel will need to be allowed time to get up to speed.

[Iblis waswas]

Did they not change procedures so that there couldn't be a repeat of the delays that Slobadan Milosevic managed to bring about in his trial?

[Ray Moscow]

I've been listening to Bosnian radio today, and they are talking about the trial a lot.

I'll probably avoid the subject with the local Bosnian Serbs.I'd say it's probably a good idea, but I'm sure I'd be drawn inexorably to discuss it with the local Bosnian Serbs....

d

Well, it did come up in conversation. The terrible role of the media was singled out: the number killed at Srebrenica was not 8,000 -- it was "3 or 4 thousand at the most".

(I can't see how the actual number killed makes much difference except perhaps to the victims' families. Thousands murdered is pretty terrible regardless of how many thousands. It's likely saying that the Holocaust "wasn't so bad" if it were 1 million murdered instead of at least 6 million.)

But still, people (at least those discussing it) seem to believe that those responsible should be punished. And that's major progress.

On the downside, that area is really suffering under the worldwide recession -- more than most, since they were poor already.