Post by Novus Dis on Jan 24, 2009 19:41:07 GMT -5
Note: I had to tidy this article up a bit because it contained major BS.
Fond memories of Karadzic charm.
At Luda Kuca, a tiny bar in a grim communist-era neighbourhood of Belgrade, most of the patrons remember a quirky old man with an intense white beard who used to stop in regularly to enjoy a glass of Bear’s Blood red wine. No one apparently knew it was Radovan Karadzic, Europe’s most wanted fugitive until his arrest in July last year. “If I had known he was Karadzic, I would have done anything I could to help him stay free,” said Tomas Kovijanic, the bar’s owner.
Luda Kuca, which means Madhouse in Serbian, caters to ageing [patriots]. It is not surprising that Mr Karadzic felt at home there, as the bar is decorated with portraits of [Serb political and military leaders], including Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, Ratko Mladic and Mr Karadzic himself.
In the months after his arrest, a detailed picture of his life in hiding emerged. In addition to carousing at Luda Kuca, Mr Karadzic maintained a surprisingly public persona. He posed as a New Age healer and was well-known in alternative medicine circles.
This disguise was in keeping with Mr Karadzic’s profile, which was always slightly eccentric. He was an accomplished poet and a trained psychologist before becoming the president of the Republika Srbska, which he led during the Bosnian War. Under [Ratko Mladic's] command, [Bosnians] initiated the siege of Sarajevo and carried out massacres [of POWs] throughout Bosnia.
He faces 11 counts of war crimes, including two charges of genocide, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [which receives the vast majority of its funding from NATO states].
Preparations for his trial at the tribunal, under pressure to wrap up its work by 2010, were delayed in September when the prosecution moved to amend the charges, arguing they would lead to a more efficient trial [though this move would have been considered illegal and immoral in any other current court in the world].
Mr Karadzic has said he will respond to the amended charges by Wednesday, after which he will have 30 days to enter a plea.
His status as a ["war criminal" (he did not actually command an army during the war)] on the run did not stop him from appearing on TV, writing a regular column in an alternative health magazine and playing with neighbours’ children under the assumed name of Dragan Dabic.
Mr Karadzic was wanted for 13 years before he was picked up while riding a public bus. He had grown so comfortable with his assumed identity that, according to a transcript released by the prosecutor’s office, at first he thought the police were simply checking that he had purchased a bus ticket.
Mr Karadzic’s ability to conceal himself in plain sight demonstrates just how difficult it can be to apprehend long-wanted fugitives.
The combination of his bushy beard, ageing and an unsuspecting public meant no-one he came in contact with guessed that this eccentric healer was one of the main stumbling blocks to Serbia’s further integration into the European Union.
Ivana Sivacki, who does her shopping near a payphone Mr Karadzic would use for 30-minute telephone calls, remembered he always had sweets for her daughter.
“He looked so poor that I wanted to help. I would ask him if he’d like to use my mobile, but he’d say no,” she said. “That this harmless old man was Karadzic was the furthest thing from my mind.”
At Luda Kuca, the owner, Mr Kovijanic, would often tell Mr Karadzic stories about his native village in Montenegro, only a few kilometres from where Mr Karadzic himself grew up.
“He would always listen with great interest, but I never saw one flicker of recognition that revealed he knew more than he was letting on,” Mr Kovijanic said.
Luda Kuca remains a bastion of support for Mr Karadzic. One patron keeps a divining tool with which the former president of Republika [Srpska Bosna] diagnosed patients.
A gusel – a one-string Serbian folk instrument – that Mr Karadzic would play on occasion still hangs in the bar.
[...] After his arrest, protests were more muted than expected, with [...] 15,000 people turning out in his support. A daily vigil is still held in Belgrade’s centre [and still] attracts [...] protesters.
With his arrest, only two men are still wanted in connection with charges at the ICTY in The Hague, [former General of Republika Srpska Bosna] Mladic and [former Premier of Republika Srpska Krajina] Goran Hadzic. Mr Mladic, who is indicted for ["genocide"] by the tribunal, is a particularly valuable target [to the NATO countries which wish to stem out Serb resistance. The Nazis also employed this strategy all over Europe by wiping out a country's leaders in order to subjugate the country's people].
Mr Mladic is accused of masterminding the Srebrenica [massacres], in which 8,000 [POWs and suspected soldiers] were killed.
His detention is seen as a prerequisite for the approval of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, which is the first step to eventual EU membership [and complete loss of sovereignty].
President Boris Tadic has said that Serbia is determined to arrest him if he is still in the country [though -ironically- arresting Karadzic was a condition of joining the SAA even though the USA agreed to allow Karadzic "of the hook" if he stepped down from being President of Republika Srpska Bosna which he did in 1996].
According to Marko Savkovic, a research fellow at the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Serbian authorities are sincere in their desire to arrest Mr Mladic.
“They now see him as an unnecessary distraction to the process of European integration,” he said.
However, any hope that he would be arrested soon after Mr Karadzic has fizzled.
“The initial momentum after the Karadzic arrest has been exhausted,” said Mr Savkovic, whose think tank concentrates on euro-Atlantic integration in the Balkans [(i.e. he is a pseudo-intellectual Leftist)]. “I am not optimistic that they are getting any closer to Mladic.”
[Former General] Mladic lived openly [in] Slobodan Milosevic’s [Yugoslavia] and at the time was frequently seen around Belgrade at fine restaurants and football matches.
Once [former President] Milosevic was [illegally] deposed, he was rumoured to be in hiding in the New Belgrade district of the capital – the same area Mr Karadzic lived in – until 2006. Since then he has fallen off of investigators’ screens.
In mid-November, ICTY war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz visited Belgrade to evaluate whether Serbia has been fully compliant with the tribunal in its hunt for war criminals.
Mr Brammertz said that in searching for Mr Mladic and Mr Hadzic, Serbia needed to “overcome shortcomings of the previous management of the civilian intelligence services” [needless to say, he wishes for more political purges to take place].
“In particular, their failure to analyse and act upon information obtained in relation to the search for the two fugitives,” he said.
Just before Mr Brammertz’s arrival, on Nov 10, Serbian authorities made a high-profile raid on a furniture factory in the town of Valjevo thought to hold clues to [former General] Mladic’s whereabouts.
Amateur footage posted on YouTube showed the raid, which involved 100 heavily armed special police officers, but no breakthroughs were announced.
Despite this, it appears that the authorities are not sure where to look, with some speculation that Mr Mladic is no longer even in Serbia. Other reports claim he is still living undercover in Belgrade.
As a former military man, it is believed that he has an extremely loyal network of people willing to help him.
According to Mr Savkovic, there is a perception among the Serbian public that any progress towards European integration is being held hostage by Mr Mladic [the same claim was made about Karadzic until it was realised that he was being partially sheltered by the USA, in other words the arrest of Mladic is simply an excuse not to disallow Serbia into the EU or NATO].
During a summit last year in Prague, Serbia’s foreign minister Vuk Jeremic complained that Serbia was subject to a series of additional preconditions for integration compared to other candidate countries [which was obvious to anyone with half a brain].
“Jeremic’s comments boil down to the widespread belief that Serbia should be let off the hook as concerns Mladic,” said Mr Savkovic.
“In general, the public is tired of feeling that one man is putting all of the country’s hopes on hold.”
The Netherlands have made it clear that it expects Mr Mladic’s arrest. Dutch peacekeepers were in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre [of Muslim POWs and suspected soldiers], and their perceived inaction brought down a Dutch government in 2002. [They were also around during the various crimes the Muslim soldiers in the area committed against the Serb civilians there but no one is holding them to account for this because in the eyes of the pseudo-intellectuals in Amsterdam, Serbs aren't human beings. Mladic is a perfect scapegoat in order to keep attention from the hypocrisy of the Dutch political leadership.]
“The Dutch are very insistent on Mladic,” Mr Savkovic said. “Serbia’s integration hinges on being able to prove a shared common belief in the rule of law. Only Mladic’s arrest will prove this[" though no mention of the lack of "rule of law" in the Hague tribunal but the Dutch leadership doesn't mind this since they are above the law.]
Fond memories of Karadzic charm.
At Luda Kuca, a tiny bar in a grim communist-era neighbourhood of Belgrade, most of the patrons remember a quirky old man with an intense white beard who used to stop in regularly to enjoy a glass of Bear’s Blood red wine. No one apparently knew it was Radovan Karadzic, Europe’s most wanted fugitive until his arrest in July last year. “If I had known he was Karadzic, I would have done anything I could to help him stay free,” said Tomas Kovijanic, the bar’s owner.
Luda Kuca, which means Madhouse in Serbian, caters to ageing [patriots]. It is not surprising that Mr Karadzic felt at home there, as the bar is decorated with portraits of [Serb political and military leaders], including Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, Ratko Mladic and Mr Karadzic himself.
In the months after his arrest, a detailed picture of his life in hiding emerged. In addition to carousing at Luda Kuca, Mr Karadzic maintained a surprisingly public persona. He posed as a New Age healer and was well-known in alternative medicine circles.
This disguise was in keeping with Mr Karadzic’s profile, which was always slightly eccentric. He was an accomplished poet and a trained psychologist before becoming the president of the Republika Srbska, which he led during the Bosnian War. Under [Ratko Mladic's] command, [Bosnians] initiated the siege of Sarajevo and carried out massacres [of POWs] throughout Bosnia.
He faces 11 counts of war crimes, including two charges of genocide, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [which receives the vast majority of its funding from NATO states].
Preparations for his trial at the tribunal, under pressure to wrap up its work by 2010, were delayed in September when the prosecution moved to amend the charges, arguing they would lead to a more efficient trial [though this move would have been considered illegal and immoral in any other current court in the world].
Mr Karadzic has said he will respond to the amended charges by Wednesday, after which he will have 30 days to enter a plea.
His status as a ["war criminal" (he did not actually command an army during the war)] on the run did not stop him from appearing on TV, writing a regular column in an alternative health magazine and playing with neighbours’ children under the assumed name of Dragan Dabic.
Mr Karadzic was wanted for 13 years before he was picked up while riding a public bus. He had grown so comfortable with his assumed identity that, according to a transcript released by the prosecutor’s office, at first he thought the police were simply checking that he had purchased a bus ticket.
Mr Karadzic’s ability to conceal himself in plain sight demonstrates just how difficult it can be to apprehend long-wanted fugitives.
The combination of his bushy beard, ageing and an unsuspecting public meant no-one he came in contact with guessed that this eccentric healer was one of the main stumbling blocks to Serbia’s further integration into the European Union.
Ivana Sivacki, who does her shopping near a payphone Mr Karadzic would use for 30-minute telephone calls, remembered he always had sweets for her daughter.
“He looked so poor that I wanted to help. I would ask him if he’d like to use my mobile, but he’d say no,” she said. “That this harmless old man was Karadzic was the furthest thing from my mind.”
At Luda Kuca, the owner, Mr Kovijanic, would often tell Mr Karadzic stories about his native village in Montenegro, only a few kilometres from where Mr Karadzic himself grew up.
“He would always listen with great interest, but I never saw one flicker of recognition that revealed he knew more than he was letting on,” Mr Kovijanic said.
Luda Kuca remains a bastion of support for Mr Karadzic. One patron keeps a divining tool with which the former president of Republika [Srpska Bosna] diagnosed patients.
A gusel – a one-string Serbian folk instrument – that Mr Karadzic would play on occasion still hangs in the bar.
[...] After his arrest, protests were more muted than expected, with [...] 15,000 people turning out in his support. A daily vigil is still held in Belgrade’s centre [and still] attracts [...] protesters.
With his arrest, only two men are still wanted in connection with charges at the ICTY in The Hague, [former General of Republika Srpska Bosna] Mladic and [former Premier of Republika Srpska Krajina] Goran Hadzic. Mr Mladic, who is indicted for ["genocide"] by the tribunal, is a particularly valuable target [to the NATO countries which wish to stem out Serb resistance. The Nazis also employed this strategy all over Europe by wiping out a country's leaders in order to subjugate the country's people].
Mr Mladic is accused of masterminding the Srebrenica [massacres], in which 8,000 [POWs and suspected soldiers] were killed.
His detention is seen as a prerequisite for the approval of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, which is the first step to eventual EU membership [and complete loss of sovereignty].
President Boris Tadic has said that Serbia is determined to arrest him if he is still in the country [though -ironically- arresting Karadzic was a condition of joining the SAA even though the USA agreed to allow Karadzic "of the hook" if he stepped down from being President of Republika Srpska Bosna which he did in 1996].
According to Marko Savkovic, a research fellow at the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Serbian authorities are sincere in their desire to arrest Mr Mladic.
“They now see him as an unnecessary distraction to the process of European integration,” he said.
However, any hope that he would be arrested soon after Mr Karadzic has fizzled.
“The initial momentum after the Karadzic arrest has been exhausted,” said Mr Savkovic, whose think tank concentrates on euro-Atlantic integration in the Balkans [(i.e. he is a pseudo-intellectual Leftist)]. “I am not optimistic that they are getting any closer to Mladic.”
[Former General] Mladic lived openly [in] Slobodan Milosevic’s [Yugoslavia] and at the time was frequently seen around Belgrade at fine restaurants and football matches.
Once [former President] Milosevic was [illegally] deposed, he was rumoured to be in hiding in the New Belgrade district of the capital – the same area Mr Karadzic lived in – until 2006. Since then he has fallen off of investigators’ screens.
In mid-November, ICTY war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz visited Belgrade to evaluate whether Serbia has been fully compliant with the tribunal in its hunt for war criminals.
Mr Brammertz said that in searching for Mr Mladic and Mr Hadzic, Serbia needed to “overcome shortcomings of the previous management of the civilian intelligence services” [needless to say, he wishes for more political purges to take place].
“In particular, their failure to analyse and act upon information obtained in relation to the search for the two fugitives,” he said.
Just before Mr Brammertz’s arrival, on Nov 10, Serbian authorities made a high-profile raid on a furniture factory in the town of Valjevo thought to hold clues to [former General] Mladic’s whereabouts.
Amateur footage posted on YouTube showed the raid, which involved 100 heavily armed special police officers, but no breakthroughs were announced.
Despite this, it appears that the authorities are not sure where to look, with some speculation that Mr Mladic is no longer even in Serbia. Other reports claim he is still living undercover in Belgrade.
As a former military man, it is believed that he has an extremely loyal network of people willing to help him.
According to Mr Savkovic, there is a perception among the Serbian public that any progress towards European integration is being held hostage by Mr Mladic [the same claim was made about Karadzic until it was realised that he was being partially sheltered by the USA, in other words the arrest of Mladic is simply an excuse not to disallow Serbia into the EU or NATO].
During a summit last year in Prague, Serbia’s foreign minister Vuk Jeremic complained that Serbia was subject to a series of additional preconditions for integration compared to other candidate countries [which was obvious to anyone with half a brain].
“Jeremic’s comments boil down to the widespread belief that Serbia should be let off the hook as concerns Mladic,” said Mr Savkovic.
“In general, the public is tired of feeling that one man is putting all of the country’s hopes on hold.”
The Netherlands have made it clear that it expects Mr Mladic’s arrest. Dutch peacekeepers were in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre [of Muslim POWs and suspected soldiers], and their perceived inaction brought down a Dutch government in 2002. [They were also around during the various crimes the Muslim soldiers in the area committed against the Serb civilians there but no one is holding them to account for this because in the eyes of the pseudo-intellectuals in Amsterdam, Serbs aren't human beings. Mladic is a perfect scapegoat in order to keep attention from the hypocrisy of the Dutch political leadership.]
“The Dutch are very insistent on Mladic,” Mr Savkovic said. “Serbia’s integration hinges on being able to prove a shared common belief in the rule of law. Only Mladic’s arrest will prove this[" though no mention of the lack of "rule of law" in the Hague tribunal but the Dutch leadership doesn't mind this since they are above the law.]
