Archief - Radovan Karadzic gearresteerd

(CNN) -- Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic was working at a medical practice in Belgrade using a false identity and heavily disguised by a snow white beard before his arrest brought an end to more than a decade on the run, Serbian officials said Tuesday.

Karadzic -- one of the world's most wanted men for his role in atrocities committed during the 1990s Balkans conflict -- was arrested on a bus Friday in Belgrade after a weeks-long covert operation to track down the former leader, said proesecutor Vladimir Vukcevic.

At a news conference in Belgrade on Tuesday, authorities displayed a recent picture of Karadzic that showed him with short white hair, a long white beard and glasses. Before he went on the run, Karadzic was clean-shaven with a mop of salt-and-pepper hair.

Karadzic is accused of ordering the deadly siege of Sarajevo and some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II -- including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

The capture of the so-called "Butcher of Bosnia" was hailed as a landmark for international justice and for Serbia, whose new government has pledged to bring its wanted war criminals to justice as a condition of membership of the European Union.

"Karadzic's arrest drew jubilation in the streets of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, which Bosnian Serb forces had shelled heavily during the war, and a small protest from ultra Serb nationalists in front of Belgrade's heavily guarded war crimes court.

His lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said there were concerns over his arrest and treatment. He said he was not eating but that a doctor's examination had deemed him healthy.
"No one knows who arrested him, who ordered that and who kept him for three days until he was brought here tonight," he said.

"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and than he was taken to some place and kept in the room," he said.

"He was blindfolded...he was kept in some room.... And that is absolutely against the law what they did. The judge also said that he will look into this matter, who and why kept him for three days."

Karadzic -- last seen in public in 1996 -- was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the 1992-1995 war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia.

Former U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke blamed Karadzic for all the deaths in the three-year war in Bosnia, which had the bloodiest of the Balkan conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

"Without Radovan Karadzic, this thing wouldn't have happened," Holbrooke told CNN.
"This guy in my view was worse than Milosevic ... he was the intellectual leader," he said, referring to the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic who died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes in The Hague.

While president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats during a campaign of "ethnic cleansing."

Early estimates of the death toll from the 3-year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000.

Vladimir Petrovic, the charge d'affairs at the Serbian Embassy in Washington, said the arrest showed his country's commitment to accounting for its past.
"I think this is an example that the Serbian government is committed to all its international obligations and that it will continue cooperation with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," Petrovic said.

Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, congratulated Serbian authorities for taking Karadzic into custody and called it "an important day for the victims."

This news gives us immense satisfaction," EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said, according to The Associated Press. "The new government in Belgrade stands for a new Serbia, for a new quality of relations with the EU."

Karadzic's arrest leaves former Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander, as the top-ranking war crimes suspect still at large.

"While this is an important milestone, the work of the International Tribunal will not be complete until all fugitives have been arrested and tried," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said.

"Today, I can tell you that I feel kind of good," said Zlatko Lagumdzija, a former Bosnian prime minister wounded during the siege. He said the arrest could offer "a chance for new thinking" in Bosnia, still grappling with the scars of war.

Karadzic, a one-time psychiatrist and self-styled poet, declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic when Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992.
The Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital.

During the conflict that followed, the Serb forces launched what they called the "ethnic cleansing" of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats.
He was removed from power in 1995, when the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war barred anyone accused of war crimes from holding office.

But he remained "kind of a Robin Hood" to Serbs during more than a decade as a fugitive, said Holbrooke, one of the architects of the Dayton Accords.

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Soulless zei:

Ik vind het jammere zaak, 12 jaar vinden ze hem niet...Yeah sure...

Opportunisten in de nieuwe regering

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_DM_ zei:

Eh ?
Opgepakt door een pro-Westerse regering, jaren lang verborgen gehouden door een pro-Russische regering
Een jammere zaak :ironic:

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shairi zei:

idd maar wel goed dat hij nu eindelijk berecht kan worden voor zijn daden

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_DM_ zei:

Eh ?
Opgepakt door een pro-Westerse regering, jaren lang verborgen gehouden door een pro-Russische regering
Een jammere zaak :ironic:

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Icanus zei:

Laat ons eerst eens de grootste oorlogsmisdadigers van de geschiedenis berechten. De VS en Israel.

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Soulless zei:

De VS... en Israel... ? Sinds wnr zijn naties/landen oorlogsmisdadigers, das weer zo een typische ........... uitspraak...

Bush =/= VSA

En opzich oorlogsmisdadigers, eigenlijk is dat een zeikbegrip. Iedereen die vrijwillig helpt aan een oorlog is een misdadiger tbh ^_-

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Epyon zei:

In een oorlogsconflict zijn beide partijen onvergeeflijke oorlogsmisdadigers. Israël, de VS, Palestijnen, terroristen ... eigenlijk zijn ze allemaal schuldig. En redenen zoeken zoals 'ja maar de VS hebben het jarenlang uitgelokt' en dergelijke zijn nonsens. Vanaf als je het wapen opneemt ben je schuldig.

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_DM_ zei:

Nooit gehoord van staatsterrorisme ?
En lol, alsof de pro-Russische regering geen geld kreeg van de Russen.

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Soulless zei:

staatsterrorisme =/= oorlogsmisdadiger ? En sorry maar ik denk dat gij er ook nog niet echt van gehoord hebt want er zijn veel betere voorbeelden van staatsterrorisme dan de vsa en israël.

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bartreligion zei:

De VS heeft sinds de tweede wereldoorlog al veel oorlogsmisdaden gepleegd. Er zijn nazi's voor minder opgehangen in Nuremberg.

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Epyon zei:

Stalin heeft nog veel meer op zijn kerfstok, en er zijn zelfs nu nog mensen die er nog aanhanger van zijn. Idem voor China, Vietnam, Noord-Korea, ...

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