The only count in the indictment that Radovan Karadžić was not declared guilty of yesterday is the first count that charged him with genocide committed in seven BiH municipalities (Bratunac, Foča, Ključ, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica and Zvornik).
Camp detainees from Krajina are not nearly satisfied with the decision of the Trial Chamber.
“What should have happened and to what extent a crime should have been committed in the valley of the Sana River so that the Hague Tribunal would acknowledge it and accept that genocide occurred at that area in BiH as well? I have been following the verdict pronouncement very carefully, and in all their elaborations they note and state all elements of genocide, but in the end they say it is not genocide, but a joint criminal enterprise with the execution of certain criminal offenses,” said Enes Salihović, president of the Federation of Camp Detainees of the Una-Sana Canton.
Salihović adds that he is not pleased with the length of penalty announced for the former leader of Bosnian Serbs either.
“To me, as a victim of torture and crime, the amount of penalty for a certain criminal offense is indeed very important. Of course I am not satisfied with the penalty announced to Radovan Karadžić for all crimes that have been created by him and executed at the territory of BiH. Besides that, all absurdity and incoherence of the Hague Tribunal regarding the announcement of such serious verdicts have once again been demonstrated. If someone is a supreme commandant of the army and the third or fourth person below him in the hierarchy gets a life sentence, how can Karadžić get only 40 years in prison for the same criminal offense or for the same counts in the indictment,” Salihović wonders.
Associations of camp detainees from Prijedor also have a very dim view of yesterday’s verdict.
“I have been detained in three camps in the Municipality of Prijedor, in Keraterm, Trnopolje and Omarska, and I know very well what happened here during 1992. If we stick to the first paragraph about the genocide, the genocide did happen here. Every single resident of Kozarac, and there was 27.000 of us, we have all been either expatriated or killed. About 7.000 residential units have been demolished here, as well as 16 mosques whose foundations were also removed. Similar things happened in the surrounding areas. We believed that we will experience at least some kind of moral satisfaction for what happened here and that Karadžić will be convicted of genocide. However, I trust the Prosecution and the Court and that some appeal procedure will clarify what really happened here,” said Hamdija Joldić, president of the Association of Camp Detainees Kozarac.
(Source: klix.ba)
