The Global Sociology Blog

Top war crimes fugitive Karadzic arrested - Europe, World - The Independent via kwout

Couldn’t happen to a better person. If anyone deserves a war crime and crimes against humanity conviction, it’s him. After all, in addition to overseeing the slaughter of Bosnians, he is also charged with running death camps. He is expected to be transferred to the International Criminal Court.

But we should not forget that both the siege of Sarajevo and the fall of Srebrenica are the shame of the international community: civilians were promised protection only to be abandoned at the hands of sadistic mass murderers.

If indicted, Karadzic is almost sure to be the first European to be convicted of genocide and war crimes (Milosevic died while in custody) by the International Criminal Court.

Karadzic and his co-conspirator Radko Mladic, are responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Republic of Bosnia, resulting in the death of 100,000 and 2 million displacements. They were also at the root of the systematic rape of Bosnian women in front of their husbands and male relatives as war tactic (The Guardian).

He will now face 15 counts including genocide, ethnic cleansing, deportation, inhuman acts, kidnapping and hostage taking, persecution and mass murder.

There is no question that this arrest is beneficial to Serbia as it seeks to become a member of the European Union and any arrest of war criminals there is proof of its good faith and commitment to international rules, peace and stability in the Balkans. Indeed, the EU has made the active search and arrest of war criminals one of the conditions for integration within the Union.

Now, if only they could find his accomplice, Radko Mladic, and drag his behind to the ICC, that’d be great.