NEW YORK, July 23 (Hina) - Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb leader, wanted by the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) for a few years, has been accused and the trial against him has been conducting in the U.S.
federal court in New York.
NEW YORK, July 23 (Hina) - Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb
leader, wanted by the Hague-based International War Crimes
Tribunal (ICTY) for a few years, has been accused and the trial
against him has been conducting in the U.S. federal court in New
York. #L#
Ten citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina filed a civil lawsuit against
this notorious war crimes suspect over what they suffered during
the war in Bosnia and demanded 51 million dollars as indemnity.
Contrary to the ICTY's statute which does not provide for the trial
of a defendant in absentia, the jury of the New York court can make a
ruling even if Karadzic fails to appear in court.
All ten Bosnian nationals who have taken civil action against
Karadzic remain unnamed, and the prosecution lawyers have said they
have a reason for fearing for their safety and security in case
their identities be disclosed. In addition, they have been suing
Karadzic in the name of all victims of grave violations of
humanitarian and international law.
Charges have been pressed against Karadzic because he commanded and
controlled military, paramilitary and civilian authorities, and
therefore he is responsible for their acts. He is held accountable
for failing to prevent crimes and punish their perpetrators.
This Serb hard-liner should answer for nine groups of counts -
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, executions,
forcible deportation of civilians, torture, cruel, inhumane and
humiliating acts, killings, physical abuse and deliberate
provocation of mental suffering.
The prosecution demands the direct compensation of $15 million and
has also submitted also a claim for damages of 36 million.
Testimonies of six women and four men, who are suing Karadzic, give
detailed and distressing accounts of crimes committed in 1992 and
1993 in Bosnia. Mass killings, inhumane cruelty, torture of
prisoners, rapes are described on thirty odd pages of the suit.
Event the cold vocabulary of law cannot diminish the feeling of
horror and shock while man is reading about crimes committed by Serb
forces in Trnopolje, Foca, Bosanski Samac, Batkovic, Omarska,
Prijedor, Manjaca, Kljuc, Keraterm, Gomijenica, Kozarac, Sarajevo
and other villages and towns.
The action is being supported by some eminent law colleges and human
rights centres in the United States such as the NY-based Center for
Constitutional Rights, the International League for Human Rights,
the Allard Lowenstein Project for International Humanitarian Law
the Women's Rights International Center, Yale Law School and so
on.
The court proceedings are under way and are likely to be completed
this autumn when the entire process shall have taken over two
years.
(hina) ms