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| 21 years after Serbian Leader convicted of war crime. Muhammadu Buhari on waiting list. . . |
A UN war crimes tribunal has convicted Radovan Karadzic, the Serbs’ leader in Bosnia during the civil war in the 1990s, of war crimes. The tribunal says that Karadzic is ‘responsible for crimes against humanity’ and war crimes. Genocide charges are so far ruled out, but the events of Srebrenica are yet to be addressed. This judgment, which is coming some 21 years after the crimes were committed is a clear warning to the likes of General Muhammadu Buhari who has made a sport, the killing of innocent and unarmed Biafrans, in the guise of protecting the sovereignty of Nigeria.
RT reports that Karadzic was indicted for two counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of violations of the laws of war in his capacity as President of Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1996.
However, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found no evidence of genocide in Bosnian towns as the verdict was read out Thursday.
Many crimes were committed by Bosnian Serb forces against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats in the municipalities of Bosnia, but Karadzic ”is not held responsible for genocide,” presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said.
He does bear responsibility for crimes against humanity, Kwon said. This includes murder, extermination and forcible transfer in the municipalities.
The 44-month siege of Sarajevo also amounts to a war crime, Kwon ruled.
Events relating specifically to Srebrenica - the second charge of genocide - are yet to be addressed.
The judge has already said Radovan Karadzic ordered the takeover of the Bosnian town before the tragic events of July 1995, when, according to Bosnian Muslims and Western governments, Bosnian Serb forces allegedly murdered nearly 7,500 Muslim men and boys.
Thursday verdict is to follow an almost five-year trial and Karadzic's seven-year incarceration in a jail in The Hague.
As the supreme commander of the Bosnian Serb Army at the time, Karadzic is accused of being responsible for numerous sniper and artillery attacks on the population of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, during its 44-month siege.
Karadzic is also accused of what is known as the Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb forces allegedly murdered nearly 7,500 Muslim men and boys, according to Bosnian Muslims and Western governments.
In a recent interview with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Karadzic rejected responsibility for the atrocities, insisting that he had led a “permanent fight to preserve the peace, prevent the war and decrease the sufferings of everyone regardless of religion.”
“With Srebrenica, unfortunately, I cannot deny everything that is alleged, but I have to contest the extent and background of what happened,” he wrote to BIRN. “Again, it wasn’t an army unit that was tasked to do the misdeed; rather it was a sort of patchwork, a random collection of guys summoned to do the killings, to their surprise, against their own will and interest, and it was so clandestine that the perpetrators hid it from their most immediate commander.”
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| Close to 1000 innocent Biafrans have been murdered by soldiers and police under Buhari's command |
With this ruling a clear precedent has been set for the eventual trial and conviction of Muhammadu Buhari, the commander in chief of the Nigerian Armed, under whose authority alongside, General T.Y. Buratai, Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff and Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Nigeria, were innocent Biafrans gruesomely massacred in Onitsha, Aba, and Port Harcourt.
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