Among international leaders in the 1990s, the Serbian nationalist Radovan Karadzic ranked as one of the most notorious. A psychiatrist-turned-politician, Karadzic inflamed Serb passions during the conflicts over independence which rocked the former Yugoslavian republics at the start of the decade. As president of the Serbian Democratic Party, he plunged Bosnia and Herzegovina into war. Countless atrocities committed under his command helped advance a policy known as "ethnic cleansing"--the violent removal of enemy ethnic groups from entire regions by any means, including theft, destruction of homes, rape, torture, and murder. Indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Karadzic flouted its authority and remained at large.
Born on June 19, 1945, in the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, Karadzic grew up in a mountain village with a family legacy of political strife. His father was a revolutionary who had belonged to the Chetniks. Formed during World War II to fight the Nazis, this Serb guerilla army had gone on to oppose the communist forces led by Josip Tito, later the president of Yugoslavia from 1953 to 1980. Moving to Sarajevo at age fifteen, Radovan became a medical student. Practicing medicine in local hospitals and serving as psychiatrist to the city's soccer team, he was also an artist who composed folk music and wrote poetry for children.
Karadzic's rise in politics coincided with the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia. The many republics and ethnic groups of Yugoslavia had been held together under Tito's strong rule, but his death in 1980 contributed to the federation's collapse ten years later. Several of the republics sought independence. Amid a wave of nationalism, Karadzic founded the Serbian Democratic Party in 1990. Like his patron, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic wanted to unite Serbs throughout the region.
From the outset, Karadzic issued threats. If his neighbors declared independence, Bosnian Serbs would secede. When Bosnia and Herzegovina ignored the threat and declared independence in 1992, civil war erupted. Karadzic proclaimed himself president of the Serb Republic within Bosnia, and his forces began seizing territory for Serbs.
From 1992 to 1995, Karadzic ruthlessly pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing. Allied with the Yugoslavian army and supported by Milosevic, he and his general, Ratko Miladic, ordered their forces to seize most of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They shelled cities, drove people from their homes, and massacred Muslim and Croat civilians. Mass rape of women was a particular weapon used against non-combatants.
In 1995, Karadzic's power began to break. The United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal indicted him on charges including genocide, and NATO military air strikes forced him to the bargaining table in Dayton, Ohio. Pressed by U.S. officials to give up power in 1996, Karadzic handed control to his deputies. Much international criticism followed the reluctance of the 39,000-member NATO forces to arrest him, even as greater information about his war crimes came to light and NATO promised action. But after Karadzic went into hiding in the late 1990s, no attempt was made to bring him to justice.
Recent Updates
April 1, 2004: A raid by dozens of Stabilization Force troops on a building in Pale, Serbia, where Karadzic was believed to be hiding, failed to capture him. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, April 1, 2004.
June 19, 2004: NATO peacekeepers in Serbia placed an advertisement marking Karadzic's birthday in newspapers and on posters in Pale, Serbia. The advertisement showed a one-way ticket to The Hague with Karadzic's name on it along with the text "Radovan we didn't forget. The only gift. Soon." Source: BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk, June 20, 2004.
June 30, 2004: Paddy Ashdown, the international high representative in Bosnia, fired 60 Bosnian Serb government officials who he said were failing to cooperate in the search for Karadzic. He also froze the bank accounts of Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party. Source: BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk, June 30, 2004.
This is the complete article, containing 629 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
