World Politics World Politics World Politics

How do you solve a problem like Radovan Karadzic?

There are criminals and there are those called war criminals and stand accused at the International Criminal Court in The Hague Redovan Karadzic, who made a name for his absolute hatred and brutal determination to annihilate an entire population by simply bombing, shelling and burning them. He is accused and charged with multiple counts of war crimes including genocide (Srebrenica Genocide) against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs population during the Siege of Sarajevo.

Public memory is a shallow and short term thing. It is probably worse than the memories of fishes since new things happen and the public seem to move on conveniently forgetting what had happened and as time passes by and dust begins to gather there come out people, bigots, who stand up and say: these things are made up. They never happened.

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Like those people and there a lot of them who stand up and say, as if they could wipe out history, oh, the Holocaust never happened! These are the people who are as dangerous as the criminals that massacred the millions of innocent people since they share the same hatred and burning desire to bring about the same brutal barbarity, bloodshed and slaughter to innocent people simply because they are different than those that seek to destroy them by force of violence.

Karadzic apparently not co-operating with the Court and asked the court to let him have 10 months to prepare a defence. The Hague will continue and this trial will bring fresh heartaches, pains and nightmares back to all those people who were at the receiving end of what Karadzic and his followers did and, though, most of them perished in that process but the survivors who have suffered themselves and most of all lost loved ones, in cases, entire family, entire blood lines of people got wiped out, will have to relive those nightmares again.

It is simplistic, however, to try and bring criminal justice to seek resolution or justice in such situation. Karadzic was Karadzic not because he forced his own people to support him. He became what he did, achieving that position and powers because people supported his loathsome, abhorring and brutal views of life and its priorities; not that all of the Serbs supported his madness (that has not and never will be the case in any country). They are the people, those supporters, who made him. It is not that he was not responsible for what he did. Like Hitler he is responsible but it seems we want simplistic over generalisation.

It is easy to say that Karadzic is a criminal and must pay. Indeed, he must pay but until we take a deeper look and ask ourselves why is this the case that when such a criminal is tried that he enjoys hatred outside the country in the outer greater world and in the place where he had committed the crimes but that he enjoys support and solidarity among his people (not all the people of course) who still think he was and, still is a hero who went and fought for them? That is the question that we must ask.

Why and what make the general member of a particular population choose such a position and fail to see what’s wrong in believing and acting to bring that belief into violent and brutal reality supporting people like Karadzic or Hitler? And even after the massacre and slaughter still, how people find it easy to continue to believe in such a thing, maintaining that burning hatred?

These are the serious issues that the world, Europe and the Balkans must learn to deal with. Regardless of what happens at the Hague and to Karadzic this is not going to resolve this situation and hatred, resentment and continuous renewal of perpetual hatred. There must be other ways to approach this darkest side of human minds that feed themselves in ignorance, bigotry and absence of natural regard and respect for the sanctity of life and humanity and a sense of violence raging on which monsters like Hitler, like Keradzic, like Pol Pot, like Saddam Hussain and others water their hatred and passion and lead the people to unimaginable horrors.

This is true in the Balkans, in the case of Hitler and all other monsters in history and on the current world stage (we do not have the means, courage or mechanism to bring and charge them with war crimes!) but we have never dealt with it. As human beings we have never dealt with the real issues but took the simplistic and over generalised view and learnt to parrot blames and said: well, Hitler was a monster. Indeed, he was but all those little monsters of hatred and bigotry that lived inside us, in all the peoples of the world, albeit in pockets, in all the nations of the world still remain inside us and given any chance and opportunity they begin to come out and there are always going to be people like Karadzic, like Bin Laden who will come out and call those little monsters out to go and kill. That is why we are seeing extreme racist and fascist groups are rising their ugly head across Europe, in Russia, in China, in Africa, in Asia and a lot of other places.

We must learn to deal with these little monsters as this big monster faces the trial in The Hegue. This by no means is going to resolve anything at all. | Π.Λ|

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