Dividing memories
(Dall'Economist)
The Balkans and international justice
Stand and deliver
More arrests and court cases revive bad Balkan memories
Mar 4th 2010 BELGRADE From The Economist print edition
FROM one end of former Yugoslavia to the other, people are worrying about justice. On March 1st Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, opened his defence at his war-crimes trial in The Hague. British police arrested Ejup Ganic, a wartime Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) leader, at Heathrow airport at the request of Serbia. And in Spain a Montenegrin alleged to have murdered and raped in Sarajevo during the war was arrested at the request of the Bosnians.
Since the Karadzic arrest in 2008, only two Serbs have been left on the wanted list of The Hague war-crimes tribunal. The most important is Ratko Mladic, who led Bosnian Serb forces during the war and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Serbia. Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic, has been trying to persuade the Serbian parliament to pass a resolution to condemn and commemorate the murder of up to 8,000 Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica in 1995.
Against this background, Dr Karadzic’s evidence was a blast from the past. The Bosnian Serb cause had been just and holy, he said. There was no massacre at Srebrenica, nor even a siege of Sarajevo. Such madcap denial could perhaps be shrugged off were it not for the simultaneous arrest of Mr Ganic. In May 1992, less than a month after Dr Karadzic and General Mladic began the siege of Sarajevo, Yugoslav troops inside the city were themselves surrounded by Bosnian forces. The Yugoslav army then seized Bosnia’s president, Alija Izetbegovic.
The days that followed were among the most dramatic of the war. A deal was struck and the UN began to evacuate the soldiers. With Mr Izetbegovic in captivity, Mr Ganic assumed his duties. As the convoy moved through Sarajevo, fighting broke out. The Bosnians were incensed that the Yugoslav troops were taking their guns with them. Some 42 soldiers died. Mr Izetbegovic survived the ordeal but screamed at Mr Ganic that his life was worth more than 40 rifles.
Mr Ganic denied all responsibility for the fighting. But his arrest at the behest of Serbia will damage its relations with Bosnia. These had been improving. This week, after an absence of almost three years, a new Bosnian ambassador presented his credentials in Belgrade. The Bosnians say they had been looking into the Ganic case. But in an election year his arrest has descended into a matter of mutual accusations between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks.
Meanwhile, relations between Serbia and Montenegro have deteriorated because Serbia accuses its small neighbour of harbouring members of a drugs gang whom it wants extradited. A few months ago Serbians talked of their country re-emerging as the region’s natural leader. That hope seems vain now.
FROM one end of former Yugoslavia to the other, people are worrying about justice. On March 1st Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, opened his defence at his war-crimes trial in The Hague. British police arrested Ejup Ganic, a wartime Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) leader, at Heathrow airport at the request of Serbia. And in Spain a Montenegrin alleged to have murdered and raped in Sarajevo during the war was arrested at the request of the Bosnians.
Since the Karadzic arrest in 2008, only two Serbs have been left on the wanted list of The Hague war-crimes tribunal. The most important is Ratko Mladic, who led Bosnian Serb forces during the war and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Serbia. Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic, has been trying to persuade the Serbian parliament to pass a resolution to condemn and commemorate the murder of up to 8,000 Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica in 1995.
Against this background, Dr Karadzic’s evidence was a blast from the past. The Bosnian Serb cause had been just and holy, he said. There was no massacre at Srebrenica, nor even a siege of Sarajevo. Such madcap denial could perhaps be shrugged off were it not for the simultaneous arrest of Mr Ganic. In May 1992, less than a month after Dr Karadzic and General Mladic began the siege of Sarajevo, Yugoslav troops inside the city were themselves surrounded by Bosnian forces. The Yugoslav army then seized Bosnia’s president, Alija Izetbegovic.
The days that followed were among the most dramatic of the war. A deal was struck and the UN began to evacuate the soldiers. With Mr Izetbegovic in captivity, Mr Ganic assumed his duties. As the convoy moved through Sarajevo, fighting broke out. The Bosnians were incensed that the Yugoslav troops were taking their guns with them. Some 42 soldiers died. Mr Izetbegovic survived the ordeal but screamed at Mr Ganic that his life was worth more than 40 rifles.
Mr Ganic denied all responsibility for the fighting. But his arrest at the behest of Serbia will damage its relations with Bosnia. These had been improving. This week, after an absence of almost three years, a new Bosnian ambassador presented his credentials in Belgrade. The Bosnians say they had been looking into the Ganic case. But in an election year his arrest has descended into a matter of mutual accusations between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks.
Meanwhile, relations between Serbia and Montenegro have deteriorated because Serbia accuses its small neighbour of harbouring members of a drugs gang whom it wants extradited. A few months ago Serbians talked of their country re-emerging as the region’s natural leader. That hope seems vain now.
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