I receive CNN news alerts in my email. Most of their 'breaking news' stuff is celebrity titter or vapid political chit chat of the kind that suffocates cable news. Every once in a while, though, a story comes out that truly makes my jaw drop.
The man known by some as the Bin Laden of Europe, and the world's most infamous fugitive, has been arrested. Former Bosnian Serb president and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic was detained yesterday by Serbian authorities after almost 13 years of avoiding capture.
Additionally, the man accused of being the mastermind of the worst atrocities of the 1990s Balkans' wars has reportedly been ordered by a Serbian judge to be sent to the UN tribunal in The Hague.
According to the BBC, Karadzic was practising alternative medicine and living in Serbia's capital, Belgrade and was sporting what one Serb official called a "very convincing disguise".
Whether this is true or just an excuse for why he was free for so long, the fact remains that Karadzic's arrest is one of the most significant steps forward for the nascent international justice system, especially in the wake of the indictments recently handed out against Sudan's dictator. Just as importantly, it is vindication for Karadzic's many victims.
It is also an important step by the Serbian state that had faced years of international criticism for not aggressively pursuing Karadzic and his military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic (who remains free and an indicted war criminal). It is noteworthy that Karadzic was arrested not by UN forces but by the Serbian security forces.
It is a courageous move by Serbian president Boris Tadic, especially considering the fate of his friend and predecessor. Then-prime minister Zoran Djindic was assassinated after sending Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague Tribunal.
3 comments:
This is not in any way to excuse or justify any atrocities committed in Bosnia.
Just an interesting observation, considering that Karadjic is being deported to Holland on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Meron.
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Theodore Meron was the Israeli President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia until 2007.
[Of course he sits as an American judge (as if an Israeli would be appointed to a UN kangaroo court!), but he was only an American citizen for 8 years before Germany formed the court, and has been an Israeli citizen since 1948, so I'll call him an Israeli. He was the Israeli ambassador to Canada and to the UN, as well as a legal adviser to the Israeli PM. He was a critic of Reagan and a supporter of Clinton, who nominated him to the court.]
Meron argued that deporting terrorists from the West Bank to face trial in Israel is the equivalent of the Nazis deporting people from conquered territories to Germany [Meron, War Crimes Law Comes of Age: Essays, pp. 162-163], and that PLO prisoners should be recognized as P.O.W.s [pp. 181-2].
He also argued, as legal counsel to the Israeli PM, that for Jews to resettle Kfar Etzion after the 1967 Six-Days War, would be a war crime. This even though the kibbutz was originally founded in 1927 by Yemenite immigrants, abandoned in 1929 after being attacked by Arabs, resettled in 1934, abandoned in 1939 during 1936-1939 Arab revolt, and resettled in 1943. The residents voted to remain in Arab ruled territory following the UN partition plan, and were then attacked by Arab forces. In the Kfar Etzion massacre on May 14th, 1947, all but 4 of the defenders were summarily executed by Arab Legion and irregular forces.
Former residents (and their descendants) of neighbouring Jewish settlements (that had also been destroyed by Arabs in 1947) resettled Kfar Etzion in 1967. According to Israeli law, the West Bank is not "Occupied territory", but "Disputed Territory", since the former Israeli-Jordanian border was not an international border, but only an armistice line marking the extent of Jordanian occupied Palestine from 1948-1967.
So Meron objects to Palestians facing trial in Israel, arguing that they should be tried in "Palestine", but supports ex-Yugoslavians being tried in Holland, because they wouldn't be tried properly in the Balkans.
And he argues that Jews returning to settlements in disputed territory is a war crime, but has no objection to Croatian settlements in Krajina, Bosnian-Croation settlements in former Serb territory in Bosnia, and Albanian settlement in formerly Serb territory in Kosovo.
What a hypocrite.
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http://www.b92.net/eng/insight/radioshows.php?yyyy=2003&mm=09&nav_id=34212
"Personally, I've always believed the trials in the area, war crimes trials in the area where crimes have been committed have the greatest resonance because they would then take place close to the victims, close to the people, and not thousands of miles away. But this objective, this goal, this target can only be achieved when those courts are courts about which I and my colleagues, and the Security Council would be confident that they are up to the international standards. We will not refer cases before we are quite sure that those international standards have been complied with."
[But he objected to Palestinians being put on trial in Israel.]
B92: I am sure that one of the questions you will be asked in Belgrade, perhaps by many of the people you are going to meet, is about the impartiality of the Tribunal. You've probably often heard the argument from Belgrade that the vast majority of indictees are Serbs, including the former president of Serbia, the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the chief of the army general staff. On the other hand, almost no prominent figures from Croatia and Bosnia have been indicted, or put on trial. Could you comment on that?
Meron: Well, the arrests are not a judicial function. Indictments are not within the judicial function. Those questions, I think, would be more appropriate to address to the prosecutor.
- I guess he was only following orders
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Re 1967 advice:
The legal opinion, a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent, was marked "Top Secret" and "Extremely Urgent" and reached the unequivocal conclusion, in the words of its author's summary, "that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention."
The New York Times reported Meron's advice back in March 2006:
"Mr. Meron took note of Israel's diplomatic argument that the West Bank was not "normal" occupied territory, because the land's status was uncertain. The prewar border with Jordan had been a mere armistice line, and Jordan had annexed the West Bank unilaterally.
"But he rejected that argument for two reasons. The first was diplomatic: the international community would not accept it and would regard settlement as showing "intent to annex the West Bank to Israel." The second was legal, he wrote: "In truth, certain Israeli actions are inconsistent with the claim that the West Bank is not occupied territory." For instance, he noted, a military decree issued on the third day of the war in June said that military courts must apply the Geneva Conventions in the West Bank.
"There is a subtext here. In treating the West Bank as occupied, Israel may simply have been recognizing legal reality. But doing so had practical import: if the land was occupied, the Arabs who lived there did not have to be integrated into the Israeli polity — in contrast to Arabs within Israel, who were citizens.
"Eshkol and other Israeli leaders knew that granting citizenship to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip would quickly turn Israel into a binational state. In effect, the Meron memo told Eshkol: you cannot have it both ways. If the West Bank was "occupied" for the Arab population, then neither international law nor Israel's democratic norms permitted settling Jews there.
"The memo did note, however, that settlement was permissible if done "by military bodies rather than civilian ones" in bases that were clearly temporary. A week after receiving the memo, Eshkol informed the cabinet that Kfar Etzion would be re-established — through a branch of the army called Nahal, which created paramilitary outposts. By the end of September, settlers arrived at Kfar Etzion. Publicly they were described as "Nahal soldiers." In fact, they were civilians. The ruse acknowledged Mr. Meron's opinion. It also showed a sadly mistaken confidence that the legal, ethical and diplomatic difficulties of settlement could somehow be avoided.
...
"It did not take long before explicitly civilian settlements were established in land occupied in 1967. Israel's diplomats and supporters reverted to the argument Mr. Meron discounted — that the Geneva rules on occupied territory did not apply to the West Bank. Those who still use that argument are unaware of the secret Israeli legal opinion that preceded settlement."
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http://www.kfar-etzion.co.il/
NB: A factual correction... the ICTFY was created by the UN Security Council, not Germany.
It was originally proposed by German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel during debates in the UN General Ass., on 23 September 1992; and established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council, which was passed on May 25, 1993.
Every step in NATO's war against Serbia can be traced back to German foreign policy.
German Unification: 3 October 1990
First country to recognize independent Slovenia (against EU, UK, French, Russian, US, UN policy): Germany.
Germany was intent n excercising its unified might to establish its primacy in Europe and European primacy in NATO.
First country to recognize independent Croatia (against EU, UK, French, Russian, US, UN policy): Germany.
First country to recognize independent Bosnia: Germany.
Among the first countries to recognize "independent" Kosovo: Germany.
Source of lies about Serb atrocities in Bosnia (before the real atrocities occured): Germany.
Source of lies about "concenration camps" and "genocide" in Kosovo: Germany (watch Stolen Kosovo and numerous German documentaries.)
Author of Croatia's WWII constitution: Hitler (and staff of course)
Origin of Ustashe and Kosovo Muslim Nazi brigades: Germany.
Why is Bosnia called "Herzogovina"? Herzog is German for Duke.
First UN ruler of Bosnia: a German.
For Germany, the Balkans is it's "sphere of influence", from Bismarck to Hitler to Kinkel to Fischer to today.
The strongest continental European blocks to Nazi domination: Serbia & Russia.
Germany tried to convert the emperor of Ethiopia to Islam, so that Ethiopia would invade the Balkans to support Ottomans. (The emperor was deposed, deinied Christian burial, hence assencion of Haille Sallassie).
Therefore, yes, I say that this kangaroo court, like most atrocities in the Balkans are from Germany (and its traditional ally Turkey, of course).
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