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How does someone escape international justice for 13 years you ask?

I would have thought the easiest way would be to come and live in Britain.

The establishment here don't care about punishing criminals - even mass murdering war criminals.

All you ever hear are excuses for why they couldn't help it or that they were disadvantaged, or they didn't realize it was wrong, or they had nothing to do and we should all say ahhh and understand whilst traipsing through the blood of their victims.

Pol Pot evaded justice for 18 years after the death of circa 1.7 million people due to his policies. He was useful to the powerful though, whereas Karadzic is not.

Justice?

Good point manchester me :)

It recalls to my mind the Belsen scientists who were not put on trial at Nuremberg because they agreed to help the British establish a working nerve gas production plant at Nancekuke in Cornwall.

It seems that as long as you are 'useful' to someone in power they (and more often than not their lawless and wholly unaccountable 'intelligence services') will always find some way to assist you evade the consequences of your actions.

Of corse, every now and then, they have to 'capture' someone so as to convince we lesser mortals that they are bringing people to justice.

If this was a Moslem who had killed thousands of Serbs, he could certainly find sanctuary in the UK. He would receive a nice house and garden, plus benefits, and probably a spot on the radio or at least a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ programme on which he could spout about sharia law, For this he would gain the support of a certain High Court Judge. All this is ofcourse hypothetical, and the man in question is a Serb, so the frenzy to try and condemn him starts.

I wonder how the history of today will be written in 300 years time.

13 years isn't that much, and nor is 18 years for Pol Pot.

"Dr. Death" or Aribert Heim, was a Nazi war criminal who was indicted in Germany (after WW2) of the murder of hundreds of inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941, where he would phenol (a corrosive poison) directly into the inmates hearts and other torturous methods, yet after being held for 2 1/2 years, he was released, and subsequently disappeared in 1962. There have been sightings of him in Argentina and the Argentinian Justice Minister has agreed to arrest and extradite him.

Source:

Which goes to show perseverance does pay off.

#5 -Blogpolice wrote:

"I wonder how the history of today will be written in 300 years time."

Same as the last 300 years, BP. In blood.

Not quite on this same topic, but the Editor may want to know about--and cover-- the upcoming (Tuesday, 29 July) verdict in the 'Kravice Warehouse' case from the War Crimes chamber of the State Court of BiH in Sarajevo. In this case, 11 Defendants are accused of war crimes and genocide as a result of the killing of over 1,000 Muslim men in July of 1995 during the Serb operations in Srebrenica. It is, I believe, the largest genocide trial in europe since WW2. Particularly relevant given the recently renewed interest in Mr. Karadic.

Mapleseed

Whilst I wonder if Karadic evaded justice due to a "dodgy" deal between Russia and the West they have him now. If anybody deserves to be at the Hague its him.

A good day for humanity and even better if Mladic follows.

War Criminals from powerful western nations tend to escape justice forever.

Imagine for a moment that Britain and the US bomb Iran. Iran responds by having sleeper agents target ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Television centre with a large bomb which wrecks the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and kills many people.

I can imagine Gordon Brown standing up in parliament damning it as terrorism or a war crime that will be punished.
The media would no doubt condemn it in the same way (including the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ).

However, by our own sickeningly low standards, such a terrible act is perfectly ok. NATO bombed Serbian State TV in 1999, killing 16 Civilians. Just the other day, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ published an article explaining that bombing TV stations is ok.


So if such a despicable act occurs, can we rely on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to stick to their current line of reasoning, and explain to the public that bombing TV stations is perfectly ok.

Glad he was caught - personally I have no problem saying that the execution of 7000 unarmed and helpless prisoners is wrong.

The Karadzic case says a lot about people having the will to find these people - as soon as the government changed, and they want to be in the EU, suddenly they can find him.

To catch him we put pressure on the people who sheltered him and this was far more effective than either moral arguments or military manhunts in the backwoods of Bosnia.

Lesson for how to catch Bin-Laden (or Mugabe)?

#11 - jon112uk

'Lesson for how to catch Bin-Laden'

Big difference. Bin-Laden may have to lie low but his movement is alive and well. Karadjic, on the other hand, had outlived his useful purpose.

12. threnodio...

Fair comment.

I'm sure Bin-Laden would not be as easy as Karadzic : I wouldn't fancy the chances for two plain clothes police trying to arrest him in the middle of Balochistan or where ever.

I'd still be interested to see how quickly the Pakistan ISI could tell someone where his is - if they were properly motivated.

#13 - jon112uk

It took 13 years to get Karadjic and he was wandering round a European capital in broad daylight. I would not get your hopes up of finding Bin Laden alive. Maybe someone might be tempted by a very large reward to deliver him dead but somehow I doubt it.