Serbia: Local Bloggers Discuss the Arrest of Radovan Karadžić

(An audio version of this post read by Vera Serkovic is also available. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the audio player)

Just a few days after the 13th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica, in which over 7,000 people, most of them Muslim civilians, were killed, Radovan Karadzic, former president of Republika Srpska, is arrested.

On the night of July 21-22, many major world media outlets and almost all the media from Serbia immediately issued reports of the arrest.

Many bloggers from the Serbian blogosphere were surprised by the news. Below are the first reactions from some of them.

On his blog, Co of SLIKE I DOGADJAJI wrote (SRP):

While I was prepering a report about my visit to Portland, I ran into the news that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested. I simply could not believe that it was true, but the news is published on all web sites.

[…]

Hugh Griffiths, a B92 blogger, wrote this in English:

Many of us never thought we would see this day come, that the unholy trinity of the secret police, the criminals and the priests who protected you would ensure an enduring freedom until your dying day. But luckily for us, even pessimists are wrong, at least some of the time. […]

Blogger Dynhysbys of A K U L T U R A expressed his satisfaction (SRP) with the news of Radovan Karadzic's arrest:

[…] I am glad because this government is ready and has an intention to face the problems that are still pulling Serbia into the hell of the 90's. […]

Misha of the Doctor blog criticized the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), but wrote that even though he didn't believe in its justice, he loved Serbia more than Radovan Karadzic:

[…] No matter how bad the reputation of the Tribunal in the Hague is because of the acquittals of the cutthroats such as [Ramus Haradinaji] and [Naser Oric], and no matter how innocent Radovan Karadzic was (God will help him to prove it?), Serbia is always on the first place for me. […]

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2 comments

  • Congratulations to the new government of Serbia and all those who want to move forward and contributed to this decision. Of those indicted by the International Tribunal, only two remain at large. The Tribunal has helped to establish the facts, with a focus on the individuals most responsible.

    The wheels of justice are turning, slowly.

  • I produced a documentary for FRONTLINE/World about the hunt for Karadzic and Mladic called “The Men Who Got Away”.

    For that film, I interviewed Hasan Nuhanovic, whose father, brother and mother were killed in Srebrenica. The eeriest footage in the film is of Nuhanovic’s father, Ibro, actually meeting with Karadzic just days before the massacre.

    On the FRONTLINE/World website you can watch the documentary, and a follow-up interview I did with Nuhanovic yesterday after the news of the capture.

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