Dr. Bryja, Tyler, Idrienne, Keon and I witnessed history
today. We sat within 25 feet of Radovan
Karadzic with only a thick glass wall between us and this perpetrator of
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Karadzic is on trial along with many others
at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the building
opposite the World Forum Convention Centre where THIMUN takes place. The trial is open to the public (observers
must be at least 16 years old) so the world can bear witness to the evil and
injustices of war. The Tribunal’s goal
is to hold political and military leaders accountable for their actions, most
especially abominable crimes such as murder, rape and mass killings of
civilians.
After the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the former
Yugoslavia’s ethnic and religious tensions caused the breakup of the country
into many self-declared republics including Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia. This led to full-scale war along religious
and ethnic lines. Europe and the world were
slow to intervene, resulting in the worst genocide since the end of World War
II.
The Tribunal issued its first indictment in 1994 when it was
established by UN Security Council Resolution 827. Karadzic was indicted shortly thereafter for
the genocide in Srebrenica where 8000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men were
systematically murdered by the Serbian Army.
Karadzic had been in hiding in Belgrade, Serbia until he was found in
2008. Shortly thereafter he was
transferred to The Hague where he has been on trial since 2009.
We spent a good hour watching the proceedings. The prosecution had already rested its case
so the defense was calling witnesses on its behalf. Karadzic, a doctor of psychiatry by training,
serves as his own lawyer. He and the
prosecuting attorney were questioning the latest witness, a commander of the
Serbian secret police in Bosnia. The proceeding
was surreal; so hard to imagine the people, places and crimes described as
events that actually occurred in our lifetime.
The importance of place and the work of the United Nations
struck home for my students and me.
Tomorrow we will visit the Palace of Peace, the home of the UN’s International
Court of Justice.
Ms. Vardi
