This snapshot, taken on
08/01/2011
, shows web content acquired for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search may not work in archived websites and contact details are likely to be out of date.
 
 
The UK Government Web Archive does not use cookies but some may be left in your browser from archived websites.
Advanced search
Top image
Global conversations
  • You are here:
  • Home
  • › David Miliband

David Miliband

(Archived), London

Karadzic: joy or relief?

Posted 24 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  25 comments

I  have been reading  some of the testimonials from the relatives of victims of genocide in Bosnia.  There have been some expressions of joy but the pain has been stronger.  Genocide is rightly not a term used lightly - nor is Richard Holbrooke's phrase about Karadzic "the Osama  Bin Laden of the western Balkans", which has not provoked adverse comment - but when perhaps  200 000 are murdered and 2 million displaced in a small country it is right.  The reports have reminded people that Karadzic was a poet - and psychologist to the Red Star Belgrade football team.   His arrest sends an important signal at an important time.

115 people have been tried in the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, with 56 convictions.  A small number are still on the run, including Ratko Mladic.  But the Serbian government have followed through on their election promise and deserve congratulation.  Serbs have voted twice in Presidential and parliamentary elections for European/western oriented governments.  They deserve congratulation too for resisting the blandishments of backward looking Serb nationalism.

And the Court has shown it does not go away.  This is important more generally.  It applies to the ICC - International Criminal Court - which has been pursuing those alleged to have been guilty of war crimes in Darfur.  The Sudanese government has so far refused to engage with the court, but I tried to make clear in my visit to Khartoum that the  Court would not go away if the government refused to engage.  The ruling National Congress Party in Sudan still has to decide what to do; I hope they get the message from  The Hague.



David Miliband
24 July 2008

Share this with:


Recent comments

>> I'd love to hear your thoughts on Barack Obama's Berlin speech - some of his ideas about building...<<
Louise
24 July 2008

>> Yeah, 115 have been tried, most of them are Serbs. 59 have been aqcuitted, and virtually all of them...<<
Mik
25 July 2008

See all comments (26) ›

Have an opinion?




Full archive of blog entries