New lawyer assigned to Karadzic
- The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia decided on Thursday to appoint a defence lawyer for wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and to adjourn his trial until March 2010. Karadzic, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, has boycotted the trial which was due to start on 26 October, saying he needed more time to prepare his defence.
Karadzic - who has been representing himself - appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday after boycotting the trial last week.
He insists he is innocent of all 11 war crimes charges from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, but has refused to enter pleas.
Karadzic, 64, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
“If Karadzic continues to boycott the trial in March, or in other way obstructs efficient and just conduct of the process, he will lose the right to defend himself,” the court said in a statement on Thursday.
The tribunal said, however, Karadzic would be allowed to defend himself if he appears in court on 1 March 2010, but the right would be taken away if he continued to obstruct the process.
Karadzic has been charged on two counts of genocide and nine counts of crimes against humanity, including a massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims committed by Bosnian Serb forces in eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
He was arrested in the Serbian capital Belgrade in July last year, after twelve years in hiding.
Karadzic has threatened to go on a hunger strike if he was denied the right to defend himself and if a defence lawyer was appointed.
AFP-AP Devant le juge, Mardi, O-Gon Kwon, Radovan Karadzic a réitéré qu’il a besoin de plus de temps pour préparer sa défense, qu’il assume seul, puisque la preuve recueillie contre lui totalise plus de 1 million de pages.
Vêtu d’un costume noir et d’une chemise rose et portant une cravate rouge, Karadzic s’est présenté au TPIY à 14 h 15, heure locale, afin d’expliquer ses arguments au juge.
Le fait que son procès a commencé malgré son absence constitue « une violation de [ses] droits fondamentaux », a-t-il plaidé. « Je serais vraiment un criminel si j’acceptais d’être présent à mon procès sans être prêt. »
(France 2 "Il s’est plaint à de nombreuses reprises du retard pris, selon lui, par l’accusation dans la divulgation des 45.000 documents à charge, soit 1,3 million de pages : des dépositions écrites de témoins, minutes de réunions et compte-rendus militaires et politiques notamment."
« Cela n’est pas dans l’intérêt de la cour ni des Nations unies, cela ne peut être dans leur intérêt de ne pas mener un procès correctement ».
Après cette brève comparution, le juge O-Gon Kwon a réitéré qu’il prendra une décision à ce sujet cette semaine. Il a ensuite suspendu les procédures. La semaine dernière, le magistrat avait fait savoir qu’il songeait à imposer un avocat à Radovan Karadzic si celui-ci continuait de refuser de se présenter.
Deux accusations de génocide
Jusqu’ici le procès est allé de l’avant sans M. Karadzic. La semaine dernière, le procureur Alan Tieger l’a présenté comme le maître d’oeuvre d’une campagne de nettoyage ethnique durant la guerre de Bosnie (1992-1995), qui a fait 100 000 morts et 2,2 millions de déplacés.
Karadzic doit répondre à 11 chefs d’accusation, dont 2 de génocide. On l’accuse d’être responsable du siège de Sarajevo, au cours duquel 10 000 personnes ont été tuées, et du massacre de Srebrenica (est de la Bosnie) en juillet 1995, durant lequel 8000 garçons et hommes musulmans ont été exécutés.
Radovan Karadzic est le plus haut dirigeant serbe de Bosnie traduit devant le TPIY. Arrêté en juillet 2008 à Belgrade, après une cavale de 13 ans, Karadzic risque la prison à perpétuité s’il est reconnu coupable.
Serbes contre l’extradition de Mladic
L’ex-chef militaire des Serbes de Bosnie, Ratko Mladic, qui est lui aussi accusé de génocide, de crimes contre l’humanité et de crimes de guerre pour son rôle dans la guerre de Bosnie-Herzégovine, demeure entre-temps en cavale.
Mardi, un responsable du gouvernement serbe, Rasim Ljajic, a cité une enquête gouvernementale selon laquelle 51 % des Serbes seraient contre l’arrestation et l’extradition vers le TPIY de l’homme de 67 ans.
Selon M. Ljajic, 26 % des Serbes sont aujourd’hui favorables à son extradition vers La Haye, comparativement à 50 % l’an dernier. « Nous n’avons jamais eu aussi peu de gens favorables à l’extradition de Mladic », a-t-il commenté.
Depuis sa création en 1993, le TPI pour l’ex-Yougoslavie a inculpé 161 personnes relativement aux conflits qui ont eu lieu en ex-Yougoslavie, en Croatie et aussi Bosnie, mais aussi ultérieurement en Macédoine et au Kosovo. La procédure est close pour 120 d’entre elles.
Radio-Canada.ca avec Agence France Presse et Associated Press +France 2
Les avocats de Radovan Karadzic
Top lawyers give Karadzic unpaid legal advice
Published : 4 November 2009 14:57 | Changed : 4 November 2009 17:24 By Cees Banning NRC Handelsblad
The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic may be defending himself - when he does appear - at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, but he has an international team of top lawyers at his disposal.
The Karadzic team of lawyers is led by the American Peter Robinson, the Dutchman Mark Sladojevic and the Serb Goran Petronijevic. Robinson is coordinating procedure, Petronijevic heads up the legal advisers and Sladojevic acts as a sort of private secretary responsible for day-to-day business. He speaks to Karadzic three times a day, either by telephone or in the prison in Scheveningen. This Dutch lawyer of Serb origin was also part of the legal team of the Serb president Slobodan Milosevic and Momcilo Krajisnik, a confidante of Radovan Karadzic.
Karadzic also has three case managers and two researchers at his disposal, paid for by the UN court. They receive 25 euros per hour. And he can call on around forty professors, (former) politicians, researchers and lawyers who work for him unpaid. These volunteers come from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia. Some of the lawyers have already worked for the Yugoslavia Tribunal, like Alexander Zahar (Griffith University, Australia) and Gideon Boas (Monash University, Australia). Professor Andreas O’Shea also worked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the Rwanda Tribunal.
Lawyer Kevin Jon Heller (University of Auckland, New Zealand) lost friends because he advises Karadzic, he writes on his legal blog (http://opiniojuris.org). In defence Heller writes that the trials of the Serb president Slobodan Milosevic and the ultra-nationalistic Serb Vojislav Seslj were a fiasco. The legacy of the Yugoslavia Tribunal will be decided by the Karadzic trial, according to Heller. Whatever the sentence, the trial must be conducted transparently and honestly. This is why he joined the team of legal advisers.
In the Netherlands, professor Elies van Sliedregt (Free University, Amsterdam) advised Karadzic’s defence on the scope and content of individual liability in international law - the subject in which she graduated. It was, she says, a ’one-off consultation’. Not least because her friend, the British Howard Morisson, is one of the judges in the Karadzic trial.
Professor Göran Sluiter (Amsterdam University) also advises Karadzic. "You must be open when someone calls on your specialised knowledge. Scholars must share their knowledge with society and Karadzic is part of society," says Sluiter who has also advised prosecutors at the UN court in the past. He thinks a strong defence is crucial for the development and quality of international trials.Sluiter : "In fact my contribution to Karadzic’s defence is aimed at an improvement in international law."
Ramsey Clark, former US justice minister, and top French lawyer Jacques Vergès, are also advising Karadzic. Clark and Vergès were also part of the team of advisers for Slobodan Milosevic, who also conducted his own defence in court.
------------------------Chronologie----------------------------
Timeline : Radovan Karadzic
| 28 October 2009 |
Here is a timeline of key events in the Bosnian war involving former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, now standing trial for war crimes at the Hague :
1945
On June 25, Radovan Karadzic is born in the village of Petnjica, in the municipality of Savnik, Montenegro. He completes elementary school there and then moves to Sarajevo, in Bosnia. There he finishes medical high school and university and becomes a specialist in neuropsychiatric medicine. He works in several Sarajevo hospitals and clinics and for a period in Belgrade.
1990
Karadzic first becomes active in the Green Party, and only after that joins the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS. Soon, July 12, he becomes its first president. For the first time since the Second World War, multy-party elections are held in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1991
Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence in June. The next day, the Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, engages in armed conflict in Slovenia. War spreads to Croatia. The UN Security Council passes resolution 713, which imposes an embargo on the sales of arms to all of former Yugoslavia.
Bosnia organizes a referendum on independence from Yugoslavia. The JNA begins to withdraw from Croatia into Bosnia. Working in tandem with the JNA, the SDS in Bosnia starts arming the Bosnian Serb population.
In October, the Bosnian Serb Assembly, dominated by the SDS, is founded and proclaimed the supreme legislative organ of the Serbs in Bosnia. Karadzic delivers a speech to Bosnia’s parliament, warning Muslims that they face annihilation if they secede from Yugoslavia. “Do not think that you will not take Bosnia and Herzegovina to hell, and the Muslim population towards disappearance, because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if war happens here,” he says.
In November, the Bosnian Serb assembly endorses the proclamation of “Serbian autonomous districts” in Bosnia.
1992
On January 9, after declaring the independence of the Bosnian Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later renamed Republika Srpska, Karadzic is named its first president.
On February 29 and March 1, the Bosnian independence referendum is held. The Bosnian Serb assembly urges Serbs to boycott the poll. Turnout is 67 per cent of whom 99.43 per cent favour independence. On March 5, Bosnia declares independence. The Bosnian Serb leadership starts roadblocks in protest.
The constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares in Article 2 that its territory consists of “Serbian autonomous regions, municipalities and other Serbian ethnic entities, including the regions in which genocide was committed against the Serbian population in World War Two.”
In April, Serbian forces attack parts of northern Bosnia. Bosnia is internationally recognized as an independent state. The 44-month siege of Sarajevo starts.
In May, Karadzic outlines “six strategic objectives” of the Serbs in Bosnia : establishing borders separating the Serbian people from the other ethnic communities : establishing a corridor between Semberija in the north and the north-west Krajina region : establishing a corridor to the eastern Drina river valley : establishing a border on the Una and Neretva rivers : the division of Sarajevo into Serbian and Muslim parts : ensuring access to the sea. The Bosnian Serb assembly votes to create the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, and appoints Ratko Mladic commander.
In summer, the international media reports a new phenomenon – “ethnic cleansing”. Reports spread of death camps and mass rapes. Hundreds of thousands are forced from their homes and large portions of Bosnia “cleansed” of non-Serbs. The Serbs establish camps in the northwest Prijedor area, where more then 7,000 non-Serbs are detained, tortured or killed.
1993
In January Cyrus Vance of the US and David Owen of Britain present a peace plan. Under pressure from Serbia’s leader, Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic signs but after the Bosnian Serb assembly votes against it, he withdraws assent.
In May, the UN votes to set up a war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia to try “persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991”. The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, is born.
1994
Bosnia Serbs shell the Sarajevo marketplace, killing 67. NATO rules that heavy weapons must be removed from a 20-mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo or turned over to UN control. NATO downs four Serbian planes in the no-fly zone.
NATO bombs Serb positions as the Serbs advance on a UN proclaimed “safe haven”, Gorazde, in eastern Bosnia.
1995
In May 25, Bosnian Serbs shell the northern town of Tuzla, killing 70 and wounding more than 150. In July 11, the VRS overrun Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, killing more than 7,500 men and boys in Europe’s worst single atrocity since the end of the Second World War.
In August 28, Serb forces bomb the market hall in Sarajevo, killing 43.
In November and December, Dayton peace accord is ratified and then signed, ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ICTY prosecution raises first indictment against the Bosnian Serb leader in July 1995, which is expanded in November 1995 to include charges of genocide over the events in Srebrenica.
1996
Karadzic withdraws from political and public life on June 30. The ICTY issued an international warrant for his and Ratko Mladic arrest on July 11.
2000
In April, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, merges the two indictments against Karadzic, which have a total of 36 points, into one with 11 points. In September, Karadzic is allegedly spotted in a bar in a Serb suburb of Sarajevo.
2001
Karadzic published a book in Serbia titled Od Ludog koplja do Crne bajke.
2002
International military forces in Bosnia undertake several raids in Republika Srpska, searching for Karadzic. In February, there is an unsuccessful raid in Celibici, near Foca in eastern Bosnia. German and British newspapers report that a French officer tipped Karadzic off about the plan. France denies the report.
2003
In August, NATO-led peacekeepers conduct a two-day operation in Pale, searching for information about Karadzic. A month later, Bosnian Serb police conduct their first raid in a search of Karadzic in Bijeljina. The internationally appointed High Representative to Bosnia freezes the bank accounts and other assets of Karadzic’s close relatives who are suspected of helping him.
2004
NATO-led troops raid the Karadzic home in Pale several times this year. His wife, Ljiljana, insists she has not seen her husband for four years. Later, she announces that she is suing NATO for $15,000 for damages caused during the operations. Later, she publicly appeals for him to surrender “for the sake of your family”.
Karadzic published one more book in Serbia titiled Čudesna hronika noći.
2005
Karadzic publishes a book of poetry in Serbia, titled „Pod levu sisu veka“ (Under The Left Breast Of The Century).
2008
In January, the Republika Srpska Interior Ministry interviews the Karadzic family. Their personal documents are handed over to local authorities after the High Representative orders their seizure.
On July 21, Karadzic is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia. It is then revealed that for some years he has lived in the city practicing alternative medicine under the assumed name of Dragan Dabic.
Posters in support of Karadzic and Ratko Mladic appear in the eastern towns of Visegrad and Zvornik and in Bijeljina, north-east Bosnia.
More then 40 people are injured after Serbian riot police fire tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a rally held in Belgrade to protest against the arrest of Karadzic.
On September 22, the ICTY prosecution modifies the Karadzic indictment, adding genocide charges in connection with Srebrenica and events in ten other municipalities in Bosnia. He is charged with various crimes in a total of 27 municipalities, as well as for terror and murder of civilians during the siege of Sarajevo.
Karadzic appears in an ICTY courtroom ten days after his arrest
The Hague prosecution amends the Karadzic indictment, adding certain counts and removing others.
2009
On October 27, trial starts without Karadzic being present, as he says he has not had time to prepare his defence.
