Experts set to travel to Ukraine to identify the war's dead
An international organization formed to identify the dead and missing from the Balkan conflicts is preparing to send a team of forensics experts to Ukraine as the death toll mounts more than six weeks into the war caused by Russia’s invasion.
Palestinian killed by Israeli troops in West Bank protest
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Friday during a protest against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said. Dozens burned tires and threw stones at soldiers who fired live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 26-year-old Palestinian man was killed by army fire and that five protesters were injured, including two by live fire.
news.yahoo.comDaughter of Bosnian war criminal Radovan Karadzic complains of 'unhealthy conditions' in English jail
The daughter of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader serving life for genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1990s Yugoslav wars, has claimed her father is living in unhealthy and “uncivilised” conditions in a British prison. Karadzic, 75, who was convicted in 2016, was transferred from a detention unit in Holland to a UK jail earlier this month following an agreement struck between the UN and the Home Office. But his daughter, Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic, has complained about the conditions at her father’s new prison after speaking to him on the phone. "As for the physical condition in which he is accommodated, it is unacceptable,” she told SRNA, a news agency based in the Republika Srpska, the Serb enclave of Bosnia. “If we add to that the fact that he is in a building full of carcinogenic asbestos that is banned around the world, it is clear in what condition he will be in.” Ms Karadzic-Jovicevic also claimed that moving her father to the UK was a deliberate act of spite against his family. "My father is in a very uncivilised situation, and as far as his family is concerned, his relocation to the south of England was deliberately made to keep him far away, outside the rules of the United Nations Resolution adopted by the Security Council,” she said. “It will be very difficult for us physically, financially and procedurally, because of visas, and immunisation during the pandemic, and even after that, to ever go there and visit him," she continued. She added that he had been deprived of his books and his computer, and will be “completely removed” from his language and his culture. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said: "UK prisons meet health and safety standards." Ms Karadzic-Jovicevic, who has a political career in Bosnia, has fought to defend her father’s name despite his brutal role in the wars as the Yugoslavian federation separated in the 1990s. Known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, Karadzic went down in infamy, in particular for ordering the Srebrenica Massacre in July 1995. Some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up by the Bosnian Serb army in and around the town of Srebrenica and then killed in the worst single massacre in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Karadzic’s lawyers had objected to his client’s transfer to the UK, arguing that his life would be in danger owing to Muslim inmates in British prisons. They also argued that owing to possible threats to Karadzic’s life he would be kept in conditions resembling solitary confinement, but the UN court dismissed the objections. Given his role in the slaughter of Muslims, the experience of another Serb convicted of war crimes may also weigh upon the Karadzic family. In 2010 Radislav Krstic, a former Bosnian-Serb general, was stabbed by three Muslim prisoners while serving a sentence in Wakefield prison, in apparent retaliation for Srebrenica.
news.yahoo.comBosnian Serb ex-leader Karadzic to spend life in UK prison
Britain Karadzic FILE - In this Wednesday, March 20, 2019 file photo, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic enters the court room of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands. The British government said Wednesday, May 12, 2021 that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will serve his life sentence for war crimes in a U.K. prison. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file) (Peter Dejong)LONDON — (AP) — The British government said Wednesday that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will serve his life sentence for war crimes in a U.K. prison. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. He is currently in the court’s detention unit but will be moved to an unspecified U.K. prison.
wftv.comBosnian Serb ex-leader Karadzic to spend life in UK prison
The British government said Wednesday that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will serve his life sentence for war crimes in a U.K. prison. Karadzic, one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, was convicted by a United Nations court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Karadzic “was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians.”
news.yahoo.comRadovan Karadzic, the genocidal ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, to be transferred to British prison
The UK has agreed Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic should be transferred to a British prison to serve the rest of his sentence for his role in the Srebrenica genocide, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. Following the announcement, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK should “take pride” in its role in pursuing justice over Radovan Karadzic’s “heinous crimes”. He said: “Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide. “He was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. “We should take pride in the fact that, from UK support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30 year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes.” Karadzic, 75, was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2016 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The UK was a signatory to the ICTY, a United Nations court of law that dealt with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. The ad hoc court located at the Hague in the Netherlands, the site of the International Criminal Court. Karadzic – who became known as “The Butcher of Bosnia” – was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been jailed in the Hague since. In 2010 the ICTY was superseded by a new body created to deal with the remaining functions of the tribunal. It is the latter body that has asked the UK to accept the transfer of Karadzic, it is understood. A Whitehall source told The Telegraph: “This was the deal at the Hague - they would conduct the trials, but they wouldn’t hold the prisoners. That’s how Charles Taylor [the former Liberian president and convicted war criminal] ended up here as well… It’s not going to be a minimum security prison.” It has also emerged that Mr Raab was a legal adviser in Britain’s embassy in the Hague between 2003 and 2006, and led on legal and war crimes work. He negotiated the 2004 deal on enforcing sentences that is being used to transfer Karadzic to the UK. The Bosnian Serb war criminal is the fifth prisoner to be transferred to the UK under arrangements with the Hague, it is understood. More to follow.
news.yahoo.comBosnian Serbs honor late ex-official convicted of war crimes
SARAJEVO – SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Bosnian Serb authorities on Wednesday held an official commemoration for a top former wartime leader, despite his war crimes conviction by a U.N. court. The gathering illustrates the continued Bosnian Serb denial of their wartime leaders’ role in the atrocities committed against non-Serbs during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. A leading Bosnian Serb official, Milorad Dodik, who is the member of Bosnia's multi-ethnic presidency, praised Krajsnik's “historic role” in establishing the Serb entity in Bosnia, according to Bosnian Serb broadcaster RTRS. He was a close aide to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted of genocide by the Hague tribunal. Bosnian Serb forces took control of large swaths of Bosnian territory, expelling Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslims, and Croats from their homes and brutally killing thousands.
Lawyer tells UN judges Mladic may not be fit for key hearing
FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic enters the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to hear the verdict in his genocide trial. Mladic is appealing Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020 against his convictions for crimes including genocide committed throughout the 1992-95 Bosnian War. At a hearing last month, Mladic's legal team warned that the former general could be suffering from early stage dementia. His former political master, Radovan Karadzic, also was convicted of crimes including genocide for overseeing atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces during the war. His appeal was rejected almost in its entirety and judges raised his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.
Sarajevo's landmark hotel faces hard times amid pandemic
(AP Photo/Kemal Softic)SARAJEVO SARAJEVO, Bosnia-The bright yellow Hotel Holiday in downtown Sarajevo has seen good times and bad times in its 37-year history. Now the boxy landmark is in danger once again, with the coronavirus pandemic leaving it with few guests. Amid the pandemic, there are hardly any tourists or business travelers visiting the capital, leaving the hotel with many empty rooms. As journalists rushed to Sarajevo to cover the escalating tensions, the Holiday Inn became the place to be. The hotel survived through a lot, and I think that we will overcome this corona crisis, he said.
25 years on: A look at Europe's only post-WWII genocide
In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces massacred over 8,000 men and boys, an event that is officially marked on Saturday July 10, 2020. With Bosnian Serb troops taking control over eastern Bosnia which borders Serbia thousands of Bosniak Muslim refugees streamed into Srebrenica. Within the next 10 days, however, Bosnian Serb troops killed the male prisoners and hunted down many of those who tried to escape through the surrounding hills. In an attempt to hide the massacre, the Bosnian Serbs buried the bodies in mass graves, only to dig them out and move later. Bosnian Serbs, however, still largely deny the scope of the killings and refuse to acknowledge they amounted to a genocide.