Šabanović: I fear a miscarriage of justice in Karadžić trial; the world also erred in '95 in Srebrenica

Adel Šabanović (31), who survived torture by the Serbian army in the village of Zaklopača near Srebrenica during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, says that the trial of criminal Radovan Karadžić reawakens in him the pain and suffering he endured some twenty years ago, during the genocide in Srebrenica, when he was only ten years old, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Radovan Karadžić, the first president of Republika Srpska, is presenting his defence closing arguments today and tomorrow before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, in a case where he is charged with the deaths of thousands of non-Serb people killed by the RS army during the aggression against BiH from 1992 to 1995.

Adel was a minor boy during the aggression, before whose eyes members of the RS army raped and slaughtered several of his friends and family members.

- They killed my father at the beginning of the aggression, and later my grandfather as well - Šabanović previously told Patria.

- The Chetniks killed in my village of Zaklopača for three days, and they forced me to bring them water with which they washed their hands and knives after slaughtering my neighbours. Afterwards, my grandmother somehow put me on a truck that was deporting refugees from Srebrenica, so I somehow saved my life.

Adel now lives in Hadžići near Sarajevo. He is seriously ill. He follows the trial of criminal Karadžić closely, but also with fear. He admits he does not trust the international community. He fears, he says, that the criminal could receive a minimal sentence even though he is responsible for the deaths of his loved ones, or that he could even be completely acquitted of responsibility for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- Because of the failures of the international community, that is, the United Nations, my loved ones are no longer alive - says Adel.

- I no longer trust anyone. I fear that a failure could happen again and that the criminal could be free.

At moments, Adel is so disturbed by the Karadžić trial that tears flow and his voice fades. When he calms down, he says that his only comfort is the absolute certainty that one day every person will stand before God, before whom they will have to answer for their deeds, and in that trial there will be no failures, writes NAP.