Karadzic transferred to The Hague

30/07/2008

Belgrade transferred former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the UN tribunal in The Hague early Wednesday to face trial on charges of genocide and other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA, BBC, CNN, ICTY, B92 - 30/07/08; AFP, Reuters, DPA, BBC, International Herald Tribune, Beta, Blic, B92 - 29/07/08)

A plane carrying Radovan Karadzic receives a police escort at Rotterdam airport. [AFP]

Serbia handed over former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) early Wednesday (July 30th) to face trial for a host of war crimes stemming from the 1992-1995 conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

Confirming the top war crimes suspect's transfer to its custody at The Hague, more than 13 years after UN prosecutors issued their initial indictment, the tribunal said it would soon announce a date for his first court appearance.

Police arrested Karadzic on July 21st in Belgrade, where he lived for years and practised alternative medicine under a false identity. Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic approved the extradition to The Hague after an appeal that Karadzic's counsel claimed to have filed never reached the special war crimes court in Belgrade.

At around 3:45 am Wednesday, three black jeeps left the heavily guarded prison in the Serbian capital that had held Karadzic since his capture. The vehicles, driven by masked men, then delivered him to a Rotterdam-bound plane. Police later transferred him by helicopter to the UN tribunal's Scheveningen jail.

Aside from late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic is the most senior official from the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s to undergo a war crimes trial in The Hague. He faces charges of genocide stemming from the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

An 11-count indictment from April 2000 accuses him too of crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention for persecution, extermination, murder, willful killing, deportation, inhumane acts and other crimes committed against non-Serbs during the BiH conflict.

His alleged crimes were part of a campaign to secure control of areas in BiH, which had been proclaimed part of Republika Srpska, the ICTY said on Wednesday.

"Karadzic and others took measures to encourage non-Serbs to leave those areas, to deport those who were reluctant to leave and to kill others in order to significantly reduce the non-Serb populations," it noted.

Citing his lawyers, Serbian media reported that Karadzic has been preparing his defence for months and sent documents to Milosevic's defence team under the pseudonym "Truth Lovers". He reportedly plans to defend himself, like Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party.

Karadzic's capture set off antigovernment demonstrations in Belgrade, some of which turned violent. At a rally Tuesday, about 10,000 protesters applauded speakers who denounced "the treacherous and dictatorial regime" of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

Towards the end of the otherwise peaceful demonstration, about 100 youths, believed to have links to hooligan groups, threw stones at police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets in response. Twenty-five policemen and 21 civilians, including two journalists, reportedly suffered injuries.