The charges against Karadzic
Al Jazeera looks at the charges against Radovan Karadzic.
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| Karadzic decided to boycott the opening of his trial, calling it a “rush to justice” [EPA] |
The war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic opened in the Dutch city of The Hague on Monday.
Karadzic faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1992-1995 Bosnian war where at least 100,000 people were killed, including two charges of genocide.
Al Jazeera looks at the charges he faces.
GENOCIDE
Karadzic is charged with two counts of genocide which involves committing, with others, genocide against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats. He participated in a so-called Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) aimed at permanently removing Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He is indicted for taking part in another act of genocide – the massacre of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in 1995 – the worst atrocity in Europe since the second world war.
Prosecutors allege more than 7,000 people were killed.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Karadzic planned, instigated, ordered, aided and abetted persecutions against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
He is held responsible for acts of extermination and murder that formed part of the objective to remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian-Serb claimed territory, carried out between March 1992 and November 1995 by members of
the Serb forces and Bosnian Serb political and governmental bodies.
VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR
Between April 1992 and November 1995, Karadzic, with other members of a JCE, implemented a military strategy that used sniping and shelling to kill, maim, wound and terrorise the residents of Sarajevo.
The sniping and shelling in a 43-month siege, killed and wounded thousands of people of both sexes and all ages, including children and the elderly.
Between May 1995 and June 1995, Bosnian Serb forces detained more than 200 UN peacekeepers and military observers in various locations.
Threats were issued to third parties, including Nato and UN commanders, that Nato air raids on Bosnian Serb military targets would result in the injury, death
or continued detention of the detainees.
Some of the detainees were assaulted or otherwise maltreated during their captivity.