Karadzic: Defence in the Name of the Serbian Nation

Karadžić u sudnici

Radovan Karadzic made the claims in his opening statement in the front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

Karadzic began by saying that he was in the courtroom not with the intention of defending himself, but rather with the intention of defending a nation that has suffered for hundreds of years, referencing the Ottoman period and World War II several times during his speech.

The Prosecution has accused Karadzic of crimes committed in Bosnia during the war, including the mass expulsion of non-Serbs, killings, destruction and genocide committed in 11 municipalities from 1992 to 1995.

According to Karadzic, the cause of the war was “the Islamist goal” of harming the “Christian majority” through secession and the establishment of a state. He said that the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Party of Democratic Action, SDA, wanted to have 100 per cent of the power in Bosnia, a goal that the Serbs could not accept.

“Some demonic powers pushed Izetbegovic [Alija Izetbegovic, SDA leader and first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina] toward this goal...More than one solution was offered, but only one would lead to war and that was the declaration of the independence and sovereignty of Bosnia.

"That is something they want even today and they will push in that direction as long as entity borders are not codified and until we separate, in a peaceful way,” Karadzic said. He later added that Muslims in Bosnia are driven by some “dark powers”, a subject he promised to  “elaborate further on”.

On March 1, 1992, a referendum on independence was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina and more than 63 per cent of those who cast ballots voted for independence. Most Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum. The war started in April the same year and lasted until December 1995 when the Dayton Peace Agreement, which divided the country into two entities, was signed.

Karadzic Trial Chamber

According to Karadzic, the responsibility of western countries for the war, in particular Germany and the US, will be proven with different quotations from politicians and public figures. Western countries, he claims, predicted everything that would happen in Bosnia a long time ago.

As proof of the west's responsibility for the war in Bosnia, Karadzic quoted Richard Holbrooke, who he claims said that the US had fought and won wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and that it would do the same in Afghanistan.

“I am more than grateful to Mr Holbrooke for this acknowledgment,” Karadzic said in the courtroom.
Hoolbroke was the US special envoy to the Balkans during the 1990s, and today he holds the same position in Afganistan.

He even thanked Franjo Tudjman, the late wartime president of Croatia, and Alija Izetbegovic, the late wartime president of Bosnia, for statements that Karadzic say prove his innocence.

“Tudjman said that the war would not happen if Croatia did not want it to happen, and I am grateful to him for those words,” said Karadzic.

“I want to thank Izetbegovic for his openess and honesty since what he said took away any responsibility from me. He said “we made our choice and the price was high... We could have avoided conflict and stayed in Yugoslavia, but we wanted to have independence.”

Karadzic also talked about massacres in Sarajevo, particularly two that were committed in marketplaces, one in 1994 and second in 1995. He rejected the Prosecution's accusation, as well as rulings by some previous trial chambers, that the Bosnian Serb Army is guilty for those crimes. According to Karadzic, the whole massacre was staged.   

He blamed international media for inciting the conflict and taking sides. He mentioned British journalists who visited camp Trnopolje, which the Prosecution calls a detention centre and which Karadzic referred to as an “accommodation centre for people who were running away from the war”.

Trnopolje, August 1993, ITN

“They staged what they showed from Trnopolje... The journalists entered a storage area which was enclosed in barbed wire, and then filmed people outside, free people.... We suffered a lot because of that,” said Karadzic.

A team of British journalists entered Trnopolje in August 1992 and discovered a detention centre where thousands of Bosnians were being held against their will. Verdicts delivered in previous trials at the ICTY established that in the area of Prijedor, where Trnopolje is located, Croats and Bosniaks were detained, tortured and killed in detention centres. These crimes are part of the Karadzic indictment as well.

Presenting his case, Karadzic blamed the Prosecution and claimed that they were one of the parties to the war. He said that their need to paint him as a monster came from the fact that they do not have any evidence against him.

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He even proposed "a game" to turn the indictment upside down in order to get what he called the real culprits for the war. "It will even be fun," he said, presenting parts of the indictment in a way that put Tudjman and Izetbegovic's names in place of his [see photo at right].

The trial resumed today after being adjourned in November last year; the court on Friday rejected a new request for a further postponement. Karadzic filed another complaint this morning, claiming he is not ready for the cross-examination of the first Prosecution witnesses, which is scheduled for March 3.

The delivery of Karadzic's opening statements will continue tomorrow.