Karadzic war crimes trial to begin Oct. 26

by albertacowpoke | October 15, 2009 at 07:50 am

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Radovan Karadicz was arrested on a bus in Belgrade in July 2008. It was the end of a long hunt by NATO to capture him. Initally Karadicz was believed to be hiding in the Serb town of Pale, just outside of Sarajevo. This author was involved in a couple of unsuccessful operations to capture him.

The layout of Pale presented itself as a difficult nut to crack, with the location of Karadiczs' residence. It was a narrow approach which only allowed single file deployment of NATO fighting vehicles.

Karadicz was and still is a hero to Bosnian Serbs, which permitted Karadicz to evade capture for many years. The fact that it happened on a bus in Belgrade is, to say the least, interesting.

His trial at the War Crimes tribunal is scheduled to commence on October 26th and is long overdue.

Karadicz is charged with 11 counts of war crimes, including 2 counts of genocide, Srebrenica and Sarajevo. He is charged with allegedly masterminding those atrocities during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

Karadicz is being held responsible for the massacre of 8000 Muslim males in Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.

Karadicz professes his innocence and has stated that Richard Holbrooke, the former US mediator had offered him immunity in 1996. Holbrooke denies this offer.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will go on trial Oct. 26, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal announced Thursday.

Karadzic has been charged with 11 counts of war crimes, including two counts of genocide, for allegedly masterminding atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim males in Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.

Karadzic claims innocence on all charges and has fought to have the charges against him dropped based on claims he was offered immunity by former U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke in 1996 if he left public life.