Serbia Hiding Genocidal War Criminals By Andrew L. Jaffee, January 10, 2004	Home   Search   Forum   Terms

Carla Del Ponte, the chief United Nations prosecutor, said today that Serbia is providing safe haven to 15 war crimes suspects, including Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic led Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Under his leadership, Serbs murdered 250,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Karadzic is wanted by the UN for his part in this madness. For example, he has been charged with ordering the slaughter of 7,000 Muslim boys and men in a single incident at Srebrenica. During testimony taken at the UN War Crimes Tribunal, Karadzic is reported to have said these ominous words about Srebrenica's Muslims:

...all of them need to be killed. Whatever you can lay your hands on.

Is it surprising that this man is being given safe haven in Serbia, given the facts on the ground? No, it is not. You would think that after all these years, Serbians would’ve had enough of ultra-nationalism, campaigns of genocide, and war crimes. Apparently, many Serbians can’t get enough. The super-nationalistic Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won an estimated 28% of the popular vote and 81 seats in parliament in elections held on December 28, 2003. Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party, with its extensive history of war crimes, won 22 seats in parliament in the same election. While I must point out that not all Serbs are guilty of anything, I am deeply troubled by the flames of ultra-nationalism that continue to burn in Serbia.

According to the BBC, the UN's Del Ponte said today that the Serbian capital of Belgrade is "a haven for fugitives":

Ms Del Ponte said he [Karadzic] had apparently joined his former army chief Ratko Mladic in the Serbian capital.

"So we have now both our most high level (people) responsible for the crimes committed, Mladic and Karadzic, in Serbia," she said.

Ms Del Ponte also criticised Serbian authorities for failing to co-operate with UN authorities.

"We must say at this time co-operation is frozen," she said.

NATO peacekeeping forces, under the leadership of the U.S., have been tracking Karadzic for 8 years in the former Yugoslavia. Earlier this month, the U.S. took action against 10 Serbs thought to be hiding Karadzic by freezing their financial assets and banning them from traveling to America. In January, NATO troops raided a house owned by Karadzic's wife as well as several other properties, but they didn't find the war criminal.

Let's hope the Serb war criminals will be brought to justice soon. Let's also hope that the majority of Serbians will face up to their own citizens' participation in genocide.