The Trial of Radovan Karadzic

Today I attended the trial of Radovan Karadzic at the ICTY (Sean’s work).
Radovan Karadzic is not a good man. He was the President of the self proclaimed Republika Srpska (an independent Serb Republic in Bosnia –Herzegovina) and for a while Supreme Commander of its armed forces. Bosnia –Herzegovina is a country that consists of 3 ethnic groups: the Serbs, Croats and Muslims (majority). Bosnia-Herzegovina was only declared an independent state from the rest of Yugoslavia in April 1992 and Karadzic declared an independent Serb republic a few months after that. The goal of the Republika Srpska was to claim territory for Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Karadzic is accused by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of instigating genocide against Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croats in order to remove them from territory to be claimed for Bosnian Serbs. Between 1992 and 1996 Karadzic commanded that Bosnian Serb armed forces carry out shelling and sniping attacks on Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to eliminate the non-Serbs. Known as the Siege of Sarajevo, possibly 10000 people were killed or went missing including 1500 children. Tens of thousands of people were wounded.
He is also accused by the ICTY of ordering the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, when more than 8000 Bosnian men and boys were executed and over 25000 women, children and elderly were forcibly removed from Srebrenica which had been declared a UN safe area. The Srebrenica massacre is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II.
In addition, he is accused by the ICTY of ordering that United Nations personnel be taken hostage in May-June 1995.
Karadzic was indicted of numerous war crimes in 1995 (genocide, attacks on civilians, persecution, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, taking of hostages). He was a fugitive between 1996 and 2008 when he grew a beard and a ponytail and hid in Belgrade working as an alternative medicine practitioner. (Previously he was actually educated and worked as a Psychiatrist). Arrested in 2008, he was extradited to The Hague where he is representing himself at his trial.
I only got to see him a little because a pole obscured my view from the public gallery which was full when I arrived. Mainly students, I think. At the recess Karadzic got up and nodded to the public gallery as if thanking us for our support.
Today the Prosecution called a witness, an impeccably dressed woman who was the head of the children’s surgical unit at a hospital in the centre of Sarajevo between 1979 and 1995. The witness spoke BCS (Bosnian Croatian Serbian) and an interpreter was used. The gallery all had headphones which enabled you to select a language to hear the trial.
Between 1992 and 1995 the witness kept a diary which listed the 331 names of children who were brought to their unit as a result of injuries due to the war. She kept records of the children’s name, address, the neighborhood they were brought from, their injuries and diagnosis, date of discharge, transfer or death. Many children were sent abroad for treatment as their injuries were too complex to deal with at this hospital. The diary also included a personal account of the situation and her feelings and impressions at the time as well as the stories of the children. Some of the diary was handwritten and some on a typewriter – they did not have computers at the hospital. During the time the witness worked at the hospital a school was shelled. The hospital was also shelled killing two patients and wounding staff. She worked under difficult conditions, sometimes there was a lack of electricity and water and there were short supplies.
Children were brought to the hospital injured by shrapnel, sniper fire and gas explosions or burnt by phosphorus shells. Some children died at the hospital. Some had long admissions. The witness read out some of her diary notes as she was asked. She mentioned a boy who had abdominal injuries, a fractured femur and head injuries, a girl with paraplegia and shrapnel lodged in a 2 year olds body. Children came in with multiple injuries, “injuries that we had never seen before”. She said “If you would like me to read more I will and I can tell you something about them. All of the children are constantly with me. I remember them.”She was very composed but you could tell there was more that she wanted to say. It was very shocking and sad.