Radovan Karadzic, the first President of Republika Srpska (RS), whose verdict on trial for genocide and crimes committed in BiH will be pronounced on Thursday, the 24th of March, in an exclusive interview for BIRN stated that there is no reasonable court that could sentence him.
“My expectations are the same. I know what I wanted, what I did, even what I dreamed of, and there is no reasonable court that would condemned me. No matter how many high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials were condemned,” said Karadzic, who is in the detention unit in Scheveningen from the summer of 2008.
Karadzic said that his “constant battle to preserve peace, prevent war and reduce the suffering of all people regardless of religion, represents a model effort worth of respect”, and added that BiH now needs a truth commission. Karadzic blamed “foreign interference” for the events of the war, adding that he was on the way to achieve constructive compromise with Izetbegovic.
“As for Srebrenica, what happened in reality is bad enough, and no magnification can help us to come to an understanding and peace among us. Unnecessary killing of a single man is terrifying, let alone murder of certainly at least several hundred people, which is, for example, the unquestionable number of victims with blinders. Those who did this are primarily enemies of the Serbs, then the enemies of their families, and the Muslim community,” said Karadzic in the interview.
“I have many objections on General Mladic and the other officers of the old school, but none of them could be blamed for the crimes. I do not believe that my verdict will have any impact on Mladic’s case. My obligation was to call everyone who knew something to testify, and their right is to either testify or not,” stated Karadzic.
“There was no genocide in 1992, only chaos that we have all seen in Croatia and predicted that it would happen in BiH if we enter into a civil war,” said Karadzic.
On the question on his opinion on belief that in case of verdict of the genocide in 1992, it would result in the abolition of Republika Srpska and centralization of BiH, Karadzic said:
“Whatever is my fate, it will not affect the fate of the RS and its citizens. Even the mono-ethnic state cannot improve its centralism, let alone a bi-national or tri-national country. This should be forgotten forever, because it is not feasible, same as it would be impracticable to retract FBiH in the “Great Serbia”. What would be the instrument that would held Serbs in a unitary BiH, or Muslims in a unitary Serbia? Terror? Fraud? That will not happen, forget about it,” concluded Karadzic.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
