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On March 24, 2016 Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War. Although this was a headline in the news and many in the global community have reacted to the sentence, the news of Karadzic’s fate was overshadowed by other world events, including the ongoing drama of the American elections, the nail bombings in Brussels on March 22nd, and the suicide bombing in Lahore on March 27th, which killed 75 and injured 340. In the midst of all of these events, why is it important to pay attention to what happened to Karadzic?

Before we try to answer that question, here are some facts. Radovan Karadzic was charged with two counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity, and four counts of violations of the customs of war. The trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) in the Hague lasted for 497 days and there were nearly 600 witnesses who testified both for and against him. Only one count of the indictment was not borne out by the judgment, that of genocide in twenty Bosnian municipalities in 1992. On this point the Judgment says: “members of the Serb Forces and Bosnian Serb Political and Governmental Organs committed murder as a violation of the laws or customs of war and murder, extermination, deportation, and other inhumane acts (forcible transfer) and persecution, as crimes against humanity.” While the Prosecution had alleged that in seven of these municipalities (Bratunac, Foca, Kljuc, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica, and Zvornik) the persecutory campaign included conduct and intent to commit genocide, the Chamber was "not convinced that the evidence demonstrated that this amounted to conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Bosnian Muslims or Bosnian Croats in these municipalities', nor is the Chamber convinced that such acts were carried out with genocidal intent.” The count of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre was upheld.

So why then is the conviction of Karadzic important at this particular time? We believe that there are a few reasons worth noting here. First, former President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic died before his trial had reached a verdict, so Radovan Karadzic is the highest-ranking politician to be convicted before the ICTY. A key part of the mission of the Yugoslav Tribunal has been to challenge the impunity of warmongering political leaders, and this judgment has made a serious contribution to illuminating the responsibility political leaders bear for war crimes.

Second, the verdict once again brings worldwide attention to the legacy of genocide in Bosnia, which includes some controversial outcomes. For Bosnian Muslims and Croats this was a disappointing judgment because there were hopes that Karadzic would be convicted of both counts of genocide and given life in prison (instead of 40 years). In the Serbian part of Bosnia this was brushed off by some as yet another indication of the anti-Serbian prejudice of the ICTY. Meanwhile in the little town of Pale, which was Karadzi’s seat of power during the war, the government of the Serbian part of Bosnia has defiantly named a student dorm after him (see: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/21/student-dorm-named-after-war-crimes-suspect-radovan-karadzic). 

And why should the U.S. and the North Shore community of Boston pay attention to this? Beyond the reasons listed above, Americans have many ties to the small country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnians started coming to the US in the 19th century, settling in the Chicago and other industrial areas. More recently, many Americans fondly remember the 1984 winter Olympics in Sarajevo. And most recently many Americans served in the Bosnian war in various capacities and followed the war and its aftermath very closely. There are also large communities of people from the former Yugoslavia who have settled in the United States in places such as St. Louis, where there are currently more than 70,000 Bosniaks, as well as Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and here in New England, totaling more than 350,000 across the country. 

The Karadzic drama is not over. Both the prosecution and the defense are allowed to appeal a sentence, and the prosecution has already announced its intent to do so. The appeal will take several years, and the appeals judgment may alter the length of his sentence. But what we do know is that the echoes and legacy of the crimes committed will continue to reverberate far beyond the walls of the courtroom. The vast amount of literature, film, and visual art, coming out of Bosnia and beyond its borders is proof enough of the shockwaves created by these events in which Karadzic was a key actor. Bosnia’s story continues, the narrative is far from complete.

Radovan Karadzic (1945) lived in Sarajevo before the war, working as a psychiatrist. From 1992 to 1995, he served as wartime president of Republika Srpska, the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and supreme commander of the Bosnian Serb armed forces. He was indicted by the ICTY in July 1995 and charged with two counts of genocide; five counts of crimes against humanity; four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war [Case Information Sheet]. After the Dayton Peace Accords went into effect in late 1995 Karadzic withdrew from public life. He was arrested in Belgrade where he had been masquerading as a faith healer and was handed over to the ICTY in 2008.

Ellen Elias-Bursac, Freelance Translator

Stephenie Young, Research Fellow, Salem State Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies