The Trial of Radovan Karadzic: An Introduction

Though the last war in the former Yugoslavia ended ten years ago, the region's legal battles are far from over, and cases now making their way through international courts will affect the political development of the region. One is the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader and longtime fugitive Radovan Karadzic.

After 13 years on the run, Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade on 21 July 2008 under circumstances that defy anything Hollywood could concoct. With a five million dollar reward offered for information leading to his arrest, Karadzic had been living in Serbia's capital city elaborately disguised and working as a New Age "healer" under the name Dr. Dragan Dabic. A week after his arrest by Serbian police, Karadzic was transferred into the custody of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He is now facing charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and severe breaches of the Geneva Convention for his role in Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

From the outset of the trial, Karadzic opted to defend himself rather than hire a defense counsel or ask the court to appoint one.  He also boycotted the trial and refused to enter a plea (one was eventually entered for him --not guilty).

When the tribunal imposed  a defense counsel on Karadzic in October 2009, it angered both Karadzic's team of defense advisers, and groups representing war victims. The defense advisers opposed the imposition of a court-appointed lawyer, arguing their client had a right to defend himself in a UN court if he chose to do so. Victims groups were dismayed that the trial they waited so long for would be postponed until March 2010 to give the defense time to prepare.

Karadzic is second only to the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic as the most prominent defendant to be tried by the ICTY. In the eyes of many Bosniaks, he is the man most responsible for the worst atrocities of the war years, including the Srebrenica massacre, which the International Court of Justice ruled an act of genocide. He is also an explosively divisive figure in a politically fragile region.

When word of Karadzic's capture got out, people literally partied in the streets of Sarajevo, hugged, kissed, honked car horns and burst into tears as years of tension released. In Belgrade and in Banja Luka, crowds of ultra-nationalists angrily demonstrated in support of Karadzic and against the international community and the government of Serbian President Boris Tadic. Civil society and moderate politicians in both Serbia and Bosnia welcomed the arrest as long overdue and necessary for political and social progress in the region, especially Serbia's chances of joining the European Union in the next decade.

The tribunal's eventual verdict in the Karadzic case will have less impact on Bosnia's stability and political future than the process of the trial itself. On both sides of Bosnia's vehement political divide, the ICTY is held in low regard, but if Karadzic's trial can be conducted without the long-running theatrics that characterized the Milosevic trial, and the defense is competent (and seen as competent), political opportunists will be deprived of an easy excuse to distract their constituencies from the urgent need to reform Bosnia's state institutions so it can function as a normal country and move in the direction of the European Union itself.

[Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasroche/ / CC BY-SA 2.0]