John: Radovan Karadzic’s trial in The Hague

Oct 29 2009 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

WHERE’S Radovan?

Former Bosnian warrior Karadzic, charged with war crimes and on trial in The Hague is refusing to leave his detention cell.

The poet, politician and practitioner of alternative medicine says he hasn’t had time to prepare a defence.

He’s had a hissy fit and taken his bat home.

Since the defendant in this case is conducting his own defence, the judges are in a bit of a quandary and are addressing an empty seat in court.

Pictures of this empty seat have already appeared on the news.

Karadzik, a convicted fraudster and embezzler, was arrested last year and charged with war crimes over his part in the Siege of Sarajevo (10,000 dead or missing, 1992/6) and the Srebrenica Massacre (8,000 dead, 1995).

The judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia know that given the severity of the alleged crimes of this Father Ted lookalike, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.

Karadzic, being his own lawyer, is probably advising himself to stall as long as possible.

So there’s a kind of stand-off that is making a mockery of justice, whether or not Karadzic is guilty.

Trying the Invisible Man is not really an option.

I wonder what the next move will be in this embarrassing and frustrating game.

And I bear in mind that for the relatives of the thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats who died, this is anything but a game.