Editorial in the Independent: Karadzic and the largest mass murder in Europe since WWII
The massacre of around 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 stands out as the worst carnage of the Bosnian war and the largest mass murder in Europe since the Second World War.
The events in the Bosnian town, classed as genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN War Crimes Tribunal, feature in the 15 counts faced by Radovan Karadzic of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed between 1992 and 1996.
Even now, bodies of the men and boys who were murdered at Srebrenica are being reburied after being reunited with their families following identification using DNA technology.
The shocking killings form part of the dramatic and violent changes that took place as the Yugoslav Federation, of which Bosnia-Herzegovina was a part, disintegrated during the 1990s.
Fighting had broken out in Croatia following declarations of independence by the Slovenes and Croats in 1991.
The following year, in a referendum, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its mixed population of Bosniak Muslims (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs and Croats, opted for independence.
But by then the country's Serbian population had declared a Bosnian Serb republic which was to remain in Yugoslavia.
An EU-hosted peace conference held in September 1991 initially brokered an agreement for ethnic power-sharing, but this soon broke down.
On April 6 1992, Bosnia was recognised by the United Nations as an independent state and on May 12 Karadzic was elected president.
Between December 17, 1992 and July 19, 1996, Karadzic served as sole president of the Serb Republic in Bosnia. He was also supreme commander of the armed forces.
In April 1992 war broke out with the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo.
Under the guise of protecting the Serb minority in Bosnia, leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic channelled arms and military support to them.
The war which followed was to be characterised by one of history's most macabre euphemisms: ethnic cleansing...
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
The events in the Bosnian town, classed as genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN War Crimes Tribunal, feature in the 15 counts faced by Radovan Karadzic of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed between 1992 and 1996.
Even now, bodies of the men and boys who were murdered at Srebrenica are being reburied after being reunited with their families following identification using DNA technology.
The shocking killings form part of the dramatic and violent changes that took place as the Yugoslav Federation, of which Bosnia-Herzegovina was a part, disintegrated during the 1990s.
Fighting had broken out in Croatia following declarations of independence by the Slovenes and Croats in 1991.
The following year, in a referendum, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its mixed population of Bosniak Muslims (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs and Croats, opted for independence.
But by then the country's Serbian population had declared a Bosnian Serb republic which was to remain in Yugoslavia.
An EU-hosted peace conference held in September 1991 initially brokered an agreement for ethnic power-sharing, but this soon broke down.
On April 6 1992, Bosnia was recognised by the United Nations as an independent state and on May 12 Karadzic was elected president.
Between December 17, 1992 and July 19, 1996, Karadzic served as sole president of the Serb Republic in Bosnia. He was also supreme commander of the armed forces.
In April 1992 war broke out with the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo.
Under the guise of protecting the Serb minority in Bosnia, leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic channelled arms and military support to them.
The war which followed was to be characterised by one of history's most macabre euphemisms: ethnic cleansing...