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Karadzic Sentenced To 40 Years For Genocide
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been found guilty of war crimes, including genocide and extermination. He was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment following a tribunal at The Hague.
Karadzic was convicted for 10 out of 11 counts by United Nations judges, in a trial that lasted eight years.
The Balkans conflict - three years of fierce fighting in the former Yugoslavia - left 100,000 dead.
War came to Bosnia when it tried to gain independence. However, it was a country with a complicated mix of Serbs, Muslims and Croats. Bosnia’s Serbs resisted.
Under their leader, Radovan Karadzic, they threatened bloodshed if the Bosnian Muslims and Croats broke away.
Between 1992 and 1995, around two million Bosnian Muslims and Croats were driven from their homes by ethnic cleansing. Many were sent to concentration camps.
The capital, Sarajevo, was besieged and shelled. 12,000 died in 1000 days.
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In 1995, 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered in just a few days in Srebrenica. Karadzic blamed rogue elements in his army. NATO soldiers were forced to intervene to bring an end to the war.
Operation Deliberate Force was a sustained air campaign involving 400 aircraft and 5,000 personnel from 15 nations, including Britain. It forced Karadzic to go on the run for 13 years.
Karadzic has now been charged with ten counts made against him, including genocide, extermination, murder and the taking of hostages, a reference to the abduction of UN peacekeepers and their use as human shields.
Throughout his eight-year trial, 70-year-old Karadzic denied the charges and told the court he expected to be acquitted. He will now appeal his sentence.
His trial will have been watched closely by the British soldiers and peacekeepers who served in the Balkans during the war, and afterwards.
Colonel Bob Stewart was the United Nations Commander of British Forces in Bosnia. He gave his reaction to the sentence to Forces TV (top of the page).
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Picture: ICTY Photos
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