Karadžić in the Focus of World Media: 40 Years in Prison for the 'Bosnian Butcher'

All relevant world media reported on the verdict against Radovan Karadžić. The long-awaited news attracted great attention and prompted memories of the entire obscure context of Karadžić's character and his wartime role, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Western media gave extensive coverage to this news. Citing the chronology and statistics of death and suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina in their comprehensive reports, they paid tribute to the victims, their families, and the survivors.

CNN reported that Radovan Karadžić, nicknamed the 'Bosnian Butcher', was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and other crimes against humanity committed by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995.

The United Nations court in The Hague, Netherlands, found the 70-year-old guilty of genocide and the Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces under his command, according to a detailed report by CNN reporters.

Karadžić, the former leader of the breakaway Serb Republic in Bosnia, is the highest-ranking politician brought to justice for the bitter inter-ethnic conflicts that erupted after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement that the verdict and sentence will stand against continued attempts to deny the suffering of thousands of people and the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

- Moments like these should also remind us that in countless conflicts around the world, millions of victims are still waiting for their own justice. This verdict shows that it is possible - Brammertz said, as reported by CNN.

CNN also reported the statement of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who welcomed the verdict as a 'historic' result for the citizens of the former Yugoslavia as well as for international justice, while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein stated that Karadžić was exposed as an 'architect of destruction and murder on a massive scale'.

In a long and detailed report, CNN also quotes John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International for Europe and Central Asia, who stated that the trial results confirmed Karadžić's 'command responsibility for the most serious crimes committed under international law on European soil since World War II.'

In the same report, CNN also mentions former army commander Ratko Mladić, who was arrested in 2012.

Mladić is charged with genocide and war crimes committed during the conflict. A verdict in his case is expected in 2017.

Quoting the presiding judge in the Karadžić case, O-Gon Kwon, regarding the killing of 8,000 people in Srebrenica, the Reuters news agency states that 'the accused was the only person in the Republika Srpska who had the power to prevent the killing of Bosnian Muslim men.'

- Not only did he not prevent it, but he ordered them to be transferred to a place where they would be killed - the judge said, as reported by Reuters.

Reuters quotes the judicial panel as stating that Karadžić was 'at the height of his power' when he was at the head of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic and supreme commander of its armed forces when his troops committed the crimes. The judges also stated that the 44-month siege of Sarajevo could not have happened without his support; that he committed crimes against humanity in an attempt to cleanse Bosnian territory of Muslims and Croats, and that he intended to eliminate Bosnian Muslim men from the town of Srebrenica, according to a detailed Reuters report.

The New York Times states that the Karadžić trial is the most significant in the 23-year history of the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and that it represents a defining test for the entire system of international justice and human rights.

The New York Times also quotes UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who, among other things, stated that '21 years after the indictment, the verdict against Karadžić is a powerful manifestation of the international community's unwavering commitment to accountability.'

The New York Times further states that, while the Tribunal has convicted many lesser figures – war criminals – it has never before indicted a figure of such high rank as Karadžić.

Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian president whose extreme nationalism largely spurred and enabled the aggression, died in March 2006 in his prison cell in The Hague before the conclusion of the UN tribunal trial. Ratko Mladić, who was Karadžić's military commander during the military campaign, is on a separate trial, the New York Times report says.

The BBC continuously covered the trial of Radovan Karadžić, including the sentencing. In a detailed profile of the war criminal Radovan Karadžić, it also quotes Kemal Pervanić, who survived a concentration camp:

- Karadžić destroyed our community – it will take many generations to rebuild it, Pervanić emphasizes, as reported by the BBC.

The BBC quotes its correspondent, who stated that the political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs were absolutely open about their intention to partition Bosnia.

They considered it an illegitimate state and an insult to the sovereignty of the Serbian nation, the BBC correspondent notes.

The most famous British media outlet recalls the mass murder of 8,000 Muslim men and boys within days of the Serbian army entering Srebrenica. Their bodies were thrown into mass graves.

The massacre resulted in a decisive intervention by NATO forces led by the United States to bring the armed conflict to an end through aerial bombing.

The British newspaper The Guardian writes, among other things, that 'the Bosnian Serb war criminal avoided a life sentence for the genocide he committed, leaving surviving victims and some experts in shock.'

Outside the Tribunal, there was great disappointment that the 70-year-old psychiatrist was acquitted on the count of genocide and ethnic cleansing in towns and villages at the beginning of the conflict, according to a Guardian analysis.

A reporter for The Guardian spoke with numerous witnesses and family members of victims, and conveyed their statements.

Murat Tahirović, president of the Association of Survivors and Witnesses of Genocide, stated that this is not the final verdict.

- We have an appeals process ahead of us. What matters to us is that this has been recorded by history, what has been done. We want this sentence to be a warning to all who contemplate committing crimes in the future. Only through truth can we build the future, Tahirović told The Guardian.

The Guardian also reported the statement of Mark Ellis, director of the International Bar Association, which represents the global voice of the legal profession.

The 40-year sentence is disappointing. The sentencing practice of the international tribunal suffers from a lack of consistency and transparency. Today's verdict is an example of such practices, which are complicated and undoubtedly too difficult to accept from the victims' perspective. The prosecutor should appeal, Ellis said, as reported by The Guardian in its comprehensive report on the verdict against Radovan Karadžić.

The Guardian further states that Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić refused to comment, and that he spent the day at an event marking the 17th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Serbia, which was intended to stop the war in Kosovo.

The Guardian also reports Vučić's statement in which he says he will not allow the verdict to be an excuse for attacks on Bosnian Serbs.

The British newspaper The Independent, in its article, conveyed part of the report by its former correspondent Emma Daly, who visited the ashes of Srebrenica nine months after the massacre.

- I am still haunted by the pink cotton fabric on the floor of the school sports hall; soldiers tore the fabric into strips, blindfolded dozens of men, drove them by truck to a nearby meadow, shot them, and buried all but a handful of survivors in mass graves. 9 months after the Srebrenica massacre, when Radovan Karadžić's forces killed more than 7,000 people, I traveled through those fields of death, horrified by the evidence I saw everywhere. Remnants of that same pink fabric in the mud of a mass grave, human bones protruding from the grass. Bullet holes, blood, brain matter on the walls of an agricultural warehouse. There was no point in asking: What happened here? Because they would only say 'nothing'. But when we asked 'Where were you when they were killing these people?' – we got a different answer: 'Ah, I wasn't here that day, I was somewhere else when it happened.' It took years for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to gather and present evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. I hope future warlords are watching: one day justice will come - Emma Daly, former Balkan correspondent for The Independent from 1994 to 1996, concludes.