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13473
Wed, 07/23/2008 - 11:26
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Karadzic's arrest brings Serbia closer to EU threshold
By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila Alexandrova.
MOSCOW, July 23 (Itar-Tass) - Arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Bosnian Serbs who is accused of war crimes, brings Serbia closer to the doors of the European Union, whose leaders applauded the event.
Getting membership of the EU is a priority declared by the incumbentSerbian authorities.
Russia, which leveled sharp criticism at the International Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia previously for anti-Serb accents, said this time Karadzic's arrest was an internal Serbian affair. It alsovoiced the hope that the trial over him would be unbiased.
Karadzic, 63, turned into the Hague tribunal's main target in 2006 after the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who diedin prison in the Hague.
One more person the tribunal is searching for is the former commander-in-chief of the Army of Bosnian Serbs, Ratko Mladic, and the president of the currently non-existent Republic of Srpska Krajna, GoranHadzic.
As reported by Serbia's National Security Council, Karadzic, who is charged with war crimes dating back to the period of 1992 through 1995 when civil war was flaring in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested latenight Monday and taken to the building of the special court in Belgrade.
He led the Bosnian Serb community in the years that coincided with the peak of the conflict. Accusations against him say he ordered opening fire at civilians in Sarajevo during the 43-months-long siege of the city and played a role in the killing of about 8,000 Moslems in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica -- an event that the world community condemnedinstantaneously as an act of genocide.
Charges with war crimes were issued to Karadzic July 25, 1995, a bounty of 5 million U.S. dollars was offered for information on hiswhereabouts.
He went underground in 1997.
There have been no official reports so far on the circumstances of his detention. It is believed that the action was carried out by Serbiansecret services but police forces did not take part in it.
The Interior Ministry said it was not involved in the operation todetain Karadzic.
The man's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, who visited his client in the detention center, told reporters that Karadzic looked calm but really tired. He did not admit any guilt on his part in the course of the firstinvestigation that lasted about 90 minutes.
Serbia's 'full cooperation' with the Hague tribunal was a key condition for its accession to the EU. By saying 'full cooperation', both the tribunal and the EU mean arrest and handover for trial of the people whom they view as the main culprits -- Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic andGoran Hadzic.
In the meantime, getting membership of the EU is the main politicalobjective set forth by Serbia's President Boris Tadic.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Tuesday Karadzic's arrest sent aclear signal that Serbia has serious intentions as regards EU membership.
Upon arrival in Brussels, Jeremic said the current government is in power for two weeks only and Monday night's event showed the genuineseriousness of its intentions.
Karadzic's arrest will lift the last barrier on the way to Serbia's accession to the EU. This has been stated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency now, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and the EU supreme representativefor external policy Javier Solana.
Manuel Barroso, who hailed Karadzic's detention on behalf of the European Commission, said this testified to the resolve of the Serbian government to reach full cooperation with the European Commission, whichis a very important fact for Belgrade's pro-European ambitions.
Congratulations came to Belgrade from the U.S. Administration, and practically all the Western leaders commented on the evententhusiastically.
A statement by Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of the breakaway Kosovo province that declared unilateral independence from Serbia, deserves special notice. He described Karadzic's arrest as evidence of thenew government's readiness to work with the West.
Moscow-base Echo of Moscow liberal radio quoted Thaci as saying this was welcome news for the people of Serbia, for peace and stability in theregion, and for the interests of the U.S. and the EU there.
Thaci called it the good news that Serbia was bringing to the world, saying that it is ready to move forward and work together with Westerngovernments.
Former Hague tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte featured Thaci's Kosovo Liberation Army in an episode of her book of memoirs published in the Italian language earlier this year. She recounted a story going back to 1999 when the army seized hundreds of able-bodied Serbs to kill themand sell their bodily organs as donor material for transplants to the West.
According to Del Ponte, a special hospital was set up for the purpose in Albania, and Hashim Thaci was the mastermins of the seizure anddissectioning of live people.
Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Andrei Nesterenko calledKaradzic's arrest "an exclusive internal affair".
He admitted that Belgrade had taken the action as part of its obligations to the Hague tribunal and he expressed the hope that trialover Karadzic would be fair.
"We call special attention to this, as the tribunal has demonstrated a biased approach many a time," Nesterenko said. "Everyone knows the cases of exoneration of Bosnian Moslems and Kosovo Albanians, and especially Ramush Haradinaj, although those people's involvement in war crime didn't leave any doubts." "Simultaneously, we'd like to make a reminder of the importance of stepping up the strategy of phasing down the activity of the Hague tribunal and handing over all the outstanding cases to judiciary agencies in former Yugoslav republics that are quite mature now and have theability to clear out such cases and to pass verdicts on them," he said.
Russia has toughly criticized the Hague tribunal on many occasions in the past. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister at the moment, spoke about Moscow's deep concern over the "serious tilts" in the activity of thetribunal back in 2000, when he was Russia's ambassador to the UN,.
Lavrov said then the activity of the tribunal had been heavily policitized from the very start, which was made manifest in its obvious anti-Serb accents and frequent shutting of eyes to the encroachments onthe norms of law by other parties to the conflict.
Current Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in June 2008 that Russia is strongly dissatisfied with the Hague tribunal's performance and suspects of apparent concealing of crimes against the Serbs, especially regardingthe cases of killing people for transplants described in Del Ponte's book.
"We consider the situation with the Hague tribunal unacceptable and expect a detailed report on its part on the measures taken in connection with the glaring revelations of former prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, whichhave been hushed up to date," Churkin said.
"One may get an impression that the serious charges like the forcibleremoval of human bodily organs are simply ignored," he said.
MOSCOW, July 23 (Itar-Tass) - Arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Bosnian Serbs who is accused of war crimes, brings Serbia closer to the doors of the European Union, whose leaders applauded the event.
Getting membership of the EU is a priority declared by the incumbentSerbian authorities.
Russia, which leveled sharp criticism at the International Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia previously for anti-Serb accents, said this time Karadzic's arrest was an internal Serbian affair. It alsovoiced the hope that the trial over him would be unbiased.
Karadzic, 63, turned into the Hague tribunal's main target in 2006 after the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who diedin prison in the Hague.
One more person the tribunal is searching for is the former commander-in-chief of the Army of Bosnian Serbs, Ratko Mladic, and the president of the currently non-existent Republic of Srpska Krajna, GoranHadzic.
As reported by Serbia's National Security Council, Karadzic, who is charged with war crimes dating back to the period of 1992 through 1995 when civil war was flaring in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested latenight Monday and taken to the building of the special court in Belgrade.
He led the Bosnian Serb community in the years that coincided with the peak of the conflict. Accusations against him say he ordered opening fire at civilians in Sarajevo during the 43-months-long siege of the city and played a role in the killing of about 8,000 Moslems in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica -- an event that the world community condemnedinstantaneously as an act of genocide.
Charges with war crimes were issued to Karadzic July 25, 1995, a bounty of 5 million U.S. dollars was offered for information on hiswhereabouts.
He went underground in 1997.
There have been no official reports so far on the circumstances of his detention. It is believed that the action was carried out by Serbiansecret services but police forces did not take part in it.
The Interior Ministry said it was not involved in the operation todetain Karadzic.
The man's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, who visited his client in the detention center, told reporters that Karadzic looked calm but really tired. He did not admit any guilt on his part in the course of the firstinvestigation that lasted about 90 minutes.
Serbia's 'full cooperation' with the Hague tribunal was a key condition for its accession to the EU. By saying 'full cooperation', both the tribunal and the EU mean arrest and handover for trial of the people whom they view as the main culprits -- Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic andGoran Hadzic.
In the meantime, getting membership of the EU is the main politicalobjective set forth by Serbia's President Boris Tadic.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Tuesday Karadzic's arrest sent aclear signal that Serbia has serious intentions as regards EU membership.
Upon arrival in Brussels, Jeremic said the current government is in power for two weeks only and Monday night's event showed the genuineseriousness of its intentions.
Karadzic's arrest will lift the last barrier on the way to Serbia's accession to the EU. This has been stated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency now, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and the EU supreme representativefor external policy Javier Solana.
Manuel Barroso, who hailed Karadzic's detention on behalf of the European Commission, said this testified to the resolve of the Serbian government to reach full cooperation with the European Commission, whichis a very important fact for Belgrade's pro-European ambitions.
Congratulations came to Belgrade from the U.S. Administration, and practically all the Western leaders commented on the evententhusiastically.
A statement by Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of the breakaway Kosovo province that declared unilateral independence from Serbia, deserves special notice. He described Karadzic's arrest as evidence of thenew government's readiness to work with the West.
Moscow-base Echo of Moscow liberal radio quoted Thaci as saying this was welcome news for the people of Serbia, for peace and stability in theregion, and for the interests of the U.S. and the EU there.
Thaci called it the good news that Serbia was bringing to the world, saying that it is ready to move forward and work together with Westerngovernments.
Former Hague tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte featured Thaci's Kosovo Liberation Army in an episode of her book of memoirs published in the Italian language earlier this year. She recounted a story going back to 1999 when the army seized hundreds of able-bodied Serbs to kill themand sell their bodily organs as donor material for transplants to the West.
According to Del Ponte, a special hospital was set up for the purpose in Albania, and Hashim Thaci was the mastermins of the seizure anddissectioning of live people.
Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Andrei Nesterenko calledKaradzic's arrest "an exclusive internal affair".
He admitted that Belgrade had taken the action as part of its obligations to the Hague tribunal and he expressed the hope that trialover Karadzic would be fair.
"We call special attention to this, as the tribunal has demonstrated a biased approach many a time," Nesterenko said. "Everyone knows the cases of exoneration of Bosnian Moslems and Kosovo Albanians, and especially Ramush Haradinaj, although those people's involvement in war crime didn't leave any doubts." "Simultaneously, we'd like to make a reminder of the importance of stepping up the strategy of phasing down the activity of the Hague tribunal and handing over all the outstanding cases to judiciary agencies in former Yugoslav republics that are quite mature now and have theability to clear out such cases and to pass verdicts on them," he said.
Russia has toughly criticized the Hague tribunal on many occasions in the past. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister at the moment, spoke about Moscow's deep concern over the "serious tilts" in the activity of thetribunal back in 2000, when he was Russia's ambassador to the UN,.
Lavrov said then the activity of the tribunal had been heavily policitized from the very start, which was made manifest in its obvious anti-Serb accents and frequent shutting of eyes to the encroachments onthe norms of law by other parties to the conflict.
Current Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in June 2008 that Russia is strongly dissatisfied with the Hague tribunal's performance and suspects of apparent concealing of crimes against the Serbs, especially regardingthe cases of killing people for transplants described in Del Ponte's book.
"We consider the situation with the Hague tribunal unacceptable and expect a detailed report on its part on the measures taken in connection with the glaring revelations of former prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, whichhave been hushed up to date," Churkin said.
"One may get an impression that the serious charges like the forcibleremoval of human bodily organs are simply ignored," he said.
