The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Timeline: Radovan Karadzic
| 28 October 2009 |
Hague Tribunal courtroom
1945
On June 25, Radovan Karadzic is born in the village of Petnjica, in the municipality of Savnik, Montenegro. He completes elementary school there and then moves to Sarajevo, in Bosnia. There he finishes medical high school and university and becomes a specialist in neuropsychiatric medicine. He works in several Sarajevo hospitals and clinics and for a period in Belgrade.
1990
Karadzic first becomes active in the Green Party, and only after that joins the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS. Soon, July 12, he becomes its first president. For the first time since the Second World War, multy-party elections are held in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1991
Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence in June. The next day, the Yugoslav People's Army, JNA, engages in armed conflict in Slovenia. War spreads to Croatia. The UN Security Council passes resolution 713, which imposes an embargo on the sales of arms to all of former Yugoslavia.
Bosnia organizes a referendum on independence from Yugoslavia. The JNA begins to withdraw from Croatia into Bosnia. Working in tandem with the JNA, the SDS in Bosnia starts arming the Bosnian Serb population.
In October, the Bosnian Serb Assembly, dominated by the SDS, is founded and proclaimed the supreme legislative organ of the Serbs in Bosnia. Karadzic delivers a speech to Bosnia’s parliament, warning Muslims that they face annihilation if they secede from Yugoslavia. “Do not think that you will not take Bosnia and Herzegovina to hell, and the Muslim population towards disappearance, because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if war happens here,” he says.
In November, the Bosnian Serb assembly endorses the proclamation of “Serbian autonomous districts” in Bosnia.
1992
On January 9, after declaring the independence of the Bosnian Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later renamed Republika Srpska, Karadzic is named its first president.
On February 29 and March 1, the Bosnian independence referendum is held. The Bosnian Serb assembly urges Serbs to boycott the poll. Turnout is 67 per cent of whom 99.43 per cent favour independence. On March 5, Bosnia declares independence. The Bosnian Serb leadership starts roadblocks in protest.
The constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares in Article 2 that its territory consists of “Serbian autonomous regions, municipalities and other Serbian ethnic entities, including the regions in which genocide was committed against the Serbian population in World War Two.”
In April, Serbian forces attack parts of northern Bosnia. Bosnia is internationally recognized as an independent state. The 44-month siege of Sarajevo starts.
In May, Karadzic outlines “six strategic objectives” of the Serbs in Bosnia: establishing borders separating the Serbian people from the other ethnic communities: establishing a corridor between Semberija in the north and the north-west Krajina region: establishing a corridor to the eastern Drina river valley: establishing a border on the Una and Neretva rivers: the division of Sarajevo into Serbian and Muslim parts: ensuring access to the sea. The Bosnian Serb assembly votes to create the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, and appoints Ratko Mladic commander.
In summer, the international media reports a new phenomenon – “ethnic cleansing”. Reports spread of death camps and mass rapes. Hundreds of thousands are forced from their homes and large portions of Bosnia “cleansed” of non-Serbs. The Serbs establish camps in the northwest Prijedor area, where more then 7,000 non-Serbs are detained, tortured or killed.
1993
In January Cyrus Vance of the US and David Owen of Britain present a peace plan. Under pressure from Serbia’s leader, Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic signs but after the Bosnian Serb assembly votes against it, he withdraws assent.
In May, the UN votes to set up a war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia to try “persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991”. The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, is born.
1994
Bosnia Serbs shell the Sarajevo marketplace, killing 67. NATO rules that heavy weapons must be removed from a 20-mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo or turned over to UN control. NATO downs four Serbian planes in the no-fly zone.
NATO bombs Serb positions as the Serbs advance on a UN proclaimed “safe haven”, Gorazde, in eastern Bosnia.
1995
In May 25, Bosnian Serbs shell the northern town of Tuzla, killing 70 and wounding more than 150. In July 11, the VRS overrun Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, killing more than 7,500 men and boys in Europe’s worst single atrocity since the end of the Second World War.
In August 28, Serb forces bomb the market hall in Sarajevo, killing 43.
In November and December, Dayton peace accord is ratified and then signed, ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ICTY prosecution raises first indictment against the Bosnian Serb leader in July 1995, which is expanded in November 1995 to include charges of genocide over the events in Srebrenica.
1996
Karadzic withdraws from political and public life on June 30. The ICTY issued an international warrant for his and Ratko Mladic arrest on July 11.
2000
In April, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, merges the two indictments against Karadzic, which have a total of 36 points, into one with 11 points.
In September, Karadzic is allegedly spotted in a bar in a Serb suburb of Sarajevo.
2001
Karadzic published a book in Serbia titled Od Ludog koplja do Crne bajke.
2002
International military forces in Bosnia undertake several raids in Republika Srpska, searching for Karadzic. In February, there is an unsuccessful raid in Celibici, near Foca in eastern Bosnia. German and British newspapers report that a French officer tipped Karadzic off about the plan. France denies the report.
2003
In August, NATO-led peacekeepers conduct a two-day operation in Pale, searching for information about Karadzic. A month later, Bosnian Serb police conduct their first raid in a search of Karadzic in Bijeljina. The internationally appointed High Representative to Bosnia freezes the bank accounts and other assets of Karadzic’s close relatives who are suspected of helping him.
2004
NATO-led troops raid the Karadzic home in Pale several times this year. His wife, Ljiljana, insists she has not seen her husband for four years. Later, she announces that she is suing NATO for $15,000 for damages caused during the operations. Later, she publicly appeals for him to surrender “for the sake of your family”.
Karadzic published one more book in Serbia titiled Čudesna hronika noći.
2005
Karadzic publishes a book of poetry in Serbia, titled „Pod levu sisu veka“ (Under The Left Breast Of The Century).
2008
In January, the Republika Srpska Interior Ministry interviews the Karadzic family. Their personal documents are handed over to local authorities after the High Representative orders their seizure.
On July 21, Karadzic is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia. It is then revealed that for some years he has lived in the city practicing alternative medicine under the assumed name of Dragan Dabic.
Posters in support of Karadzic and Ratko Mladic appear in the eastern towns of Visegrad and Zvornik and in Bijeljina, north-east Bosnia.
More then 40 people are injured after Serbian riot police fire tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a rally held in Belgrade to protest against the arrest of Karadzic.
On September 22, the ICTY prosecution modifies the Karadzic indictment, adding genocide charges in connection with Srebrenica and events in ten other municipalities in Bosnia. He is charged with various crimes in a total of 27 municipalities, as well as for terror and murder of civilians during the siege of Sarajevo.
2009
On October 27, trial starts without Karadzic being present, as he says he has not had time to prepare his defence.
