Karadzic and Mladic to appear together at ICTY trial Two of the most powerful figures from the 1990s war in Bosnia are to appear in the same court at the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has called his former deputy Ratko Mladic to give evidence in his defence.Mr Karadzic is facing 11 charges, including genocide relating to the massacre in Srebrenica of more than 7,500 Muslim men and boys in July 1995.Both suspects deny committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is the first time since the end of the conflict that Mr Karadzic and Mr Mladic will be seen together in public.Mr Karadzic is hoping his former allys answers will support his claims that the orders to commit war crimes did not come from him, says the BBCs Anna Holligan in The Hague. The BBC has seen the court document, signed by Mr Karadzic, which contains six specific questions he will ask Mr Mladic in court. Among them are: Did you ever inform me that prisoners from Srebrenica would be, were being or had been executed? Did we have any agreement or understanding that the citizens or Sarajevo should be subjected to terror by shelling and sniping? The siege of Sarajevo lasted for more than three-and-a-half years - starving the capital of food and power. Mr Karadzic is alleged to have orchestrated the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995. Survivor of 1995 massacre mourns a relative at memorial cemetery in Srebrenica The Srebrenica massacre is the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of WWII In the Srebrenica enclave, Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-defended safe area there killing thousands in the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II. Ratko Mladic was the general in charge of the troops and is now facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His trial is being conducted simultaneously at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Vicious war Mr Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 after 13 years on the run. He had been found living in disguise in Belgrade, under a false name and working as a New Age healer. Mr Mladic was on the run for 16 years before being arrested in 2011 in northern Serbia, where he had also been living under an assumed name. When Bosnia-Hercegovina became an independent state in 1992, Mr Karadzic declared the creation of the independent Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina (renamed Republika Srpska) with its capital in Pale, a suburb of Sarajevo, and himself as head of state. His party, supported by Serbian then-President Slobodan Milosevic, organised Serbs to fight against the Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia. A vicious war ensued, in which Serbs besieged Sarajevo for 44 months, shelling Muslim forces but also terrorising the civilian population with a relentless bombardment and sniper fire. Thousands of civilians died, many of them deliberately targeted. Bosnian Serb forces - assisted by paramilitaries from Serbia proper - also expelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats from their homes in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing. Numerous atrocities were documented, including the widespread rape of Bosniak women and girls.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:08:02 +0000