Court Hears Karadzic Pre-War Rhetoric

Prosecutor sets out case before tribunal packed with survivors, despite absence of accused.

By Rachel Irwin in The Hague (TU No 622, 30-Oct-09)

Prosecutors read out pre-war statements made by Radovan Karadzic and showed disturbing videos of the conflict as part of their opening statement in his trial this week, even as the accused continued to boycott the proceedings.

Speaking to a mostly empty courtroom and a public gallery packed with journalists and survivors of the war, prosecutor Alan Tieger spent nearly five hours on October 27, describing Karadzic’s alleged plan to purge Bosnia of Muslims (known as Bosniaks) and Croats in order to create a “single Serbian state”.

“The accused was both the architect of these policies and the leader of the forces that implemented them,” Tieger said.

Throughout the proceedings, Tieger relied heavily on Karadzic’s own words from intercepted phone calls and public statements.

“‘Sarajevo will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die’,” Tieger quoted Karadzic as saying in an October 1991 phone conversation. “‘They will disappear from the face of the earth…there will be a real bloodbath.’ ”

Karadzic’s description of what would befall Sarajevo foreshadowed the nearly four-year sniping and shelling of the city that would leave thousands dead, Tieger said.

“For 44 months, the civilian population lived under a pervasive sense of terror – exactly what was intended,” Tieger said.

Not only had Karadzic and his forces failed to make a distinction between civilian and military targets – as international law requires – but they also “deliberately inflicted terror” on civilians, explained Tieger.

“There was an ever present fear of being the next one killed,” he said.

Tieger emphasised that Karadzic had direct authority over the shelling and “controlled the level of terror when it suited him” politically. Sarajevo was a pawn that allowed Karadzic more leverage when negotiating with the international community and Bosnian government, Tieger continued.

The amount of power Karadzic enjoyed was reflected in his own statements, Tieger said.

“‘I am in charge, in particular of the army. Commanders report to me,’” Tieger quoted Karadzic as stating shortly after he became president of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska in 1992. “‘I am the one who decides and I am responsible for every decision.’”

Karadzic, the president of Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1996, is charged with some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. After evading arrest for 13 years, he was finally apprehended in July 2008, while he was living in Belgrade under an assumed name and posing as an alternative healer.

He is accused of planning and overseeing the siege of Sarajevo that left nearly 12,000 people dead, as well as the massacre of almost 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

The indictment – which lists 11 counts in total – also alleges that he is responsible for crimes of persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which “contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory”.

Tieger also made use of statements from Karadzic’s colleagues, including Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army who is still wanted by the Hague tribunal.

“The moment has come for us to finally take revenge on the Turks,” Mladic reportedly said on television shortly before the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.

Karadzic and members of his government often used inflammatory language to describe Bosniaks, Tieger said.

Biljana Plavsic, a member of the wartime government of Republika Srpska, referred to Muslims as “genetically tainted material,” Tieger said.

Plavsic was brought before the tribunal in 2001 and charged with having been complicit in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. She subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of persecution and was released this week from a Swedish prison, where she served eight years of an 11-year sentence.

Karadzic, Tieger said, compared Serbs and Muslims to “dogs and cats” who lose their “natural characteristics” if they remain together.

“‘Muslims cannot live with others, we must be clear on that,’” said Karadzic, according to Tieger.

Throughout his presentation, Tieger also utilised archive video footage.

To illustrate the effects of the relentless sniping and shelling in Sarajevo, Tieger showed a video of a 7-year-old boy lying limp and bloodied in the street. The boy was shot and killed, Tieger said, while walking with his mother.

When he discussed the “wholesale roundup” of Bosniaks and Croats in several Bosnian municipalities, he showed a clip from a CNN news report on detention camps run by Bosnian Serbs.

The detainees in the video appeared so emaciated that their ribs jutted out from their chests. CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour described them as being “crammed into cattle sheds”.

“In the best of circumstances, the detainees existed in dehumanising circumstances,” said Tieger, describing the now infamous camps of Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje in northwestern Bosnia.

“In the worst, they were subject to beatings, rape, torture and death,” he said.

The camps were part of a system called the “exchange commission”, which coordinated the detention and expulsion of non Serbs, Tieger said.

“The evidence will show that Karadzic had an ongoing awareness that [the exchange commission] was functioning,” he added.

Tieger showed another video clip of detained men covered in scars and bruises, one of whom had a cross crudely carved into his arm.

These clips provoked an audible reaction from the audience, many of whom were either victims themselves or had family members that were killed in the war.

Just a day earlier, it was uncertain if the trial would commence at all.

While opening statements were scheduled to begin on October 26, the judges adjourned after just 15 minutes when Karadzic, who is representing himself, failed to appear. The judges indicated that if the accused did not show up the following afternoon, the opening statements were likely to proceed without him.

As IWPR reported last week, Karadzic sent a letter to judges on October 21 stating that he needed more time to prepare his case and would thus not appear when the trial began. Both trial and appeals judges had previously rejected his request to postpone the trial for 10 months.

The October 26 decision to adjourn the proceedings early provoked cries of anger from the public gallery.

The following day, Judge O-Gon Kwon noted Karadzic’s absence “in spite of oral and written requests”. He said the right of the accused to be present was “not absolute” and that the opening statements should proceed in his absence.

The prosecution is expected to complete opening statements on November 2. If Karadzic once again fails to attend, there will be hearing the following day, where the accused and the prosecution can present their views on how the trial should move forward given the current circumstances.

Judge Kwon has made it clear that one option is to assign Karadzic a lawyer, whether he likes it or not.

“Consequences inevitably flow from his choice [not to be present],” said Judge Kwon on October 27. “Should Dr Karadzic not appear next Monday (November 2), the chamber may decide to proceed without him and counsel may be assigned.”

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.