The Hague unjustly judges Karadzic

On March 25, the Hague announced its verdict on former president of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic was charged with “crimes against humanity, violating the laws and customs of war, and genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.” The prosecutor demanded that Karadzic be sentenced to life imprisonment. As a result, the court sentenced the former Bosnian Serb leader to 40 years in prison. For 70-year-old Karadzic, this is a de facto sentence.

Radovan Karadzic  - a Serbian hero

From the beginning of the 1990’s, Karadzic established uniting the Serbs of the different parts of former Yugoslavia as the central task of his political activism. From 1992 to 1996, Karadzic was the president of Republika Srpska (the Serb republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina established on April 7, 1992) within Yugoslavia. He paid particular attention to dialogue with allied Orthodox states such as Russia and Greece. His idea of creating a Serbian-Greek confederation is especially noteworthy and symbolic. Due to Karadzic’s political initiative, the Serbs were able to maintain the political structure of the autonomous independent entity within Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, in the context of Yugoslavia’s collapse. Republika Srpska still exists today. If it were not for this initiative in the beginning of the ’90’s, Bosnia and Herzegovina would have become a unitary state with a radical nationalist Islamist ideology. US plans to destabilize the Balkan region of Europe in the 1990’s were disrupted precisely because Karadzic was able to defend the de facto independence of Republika Srpska, and Bosnia and Herzegovina remained a confederation with a wide degree of autonomy for the Serbs and Croats within it.

The West against Karadzic

Why has the West shown such cruelty against Karadzic and those who defended the sovereignty of the Serbian people during such critical conditions? In their struggle for independence, the Serbs refused to accept US-NATO hegemony and instead consistently advocated the preservation of Orthodox identity and a geopolitical orientation focused on Russia. This is precisely why the West claims that all of the excesses committed during the civil war, endemic to all sides, were all the fault of the Serbian side. Similar or even bloodier episodes in which the aggressors were Bosnian Muslims or Croats are categorically ignored.

Thus, the Hague Tribunal does not act as an independent, objective court, but rather as a punitive instrument for the US and NATO used against those who challenge their hegemony.

The illegitimacy of the Hague Tribunal

"If a real judicial body worked in the Hague, I would be willing to go there and make a statement on television. But the tribunal in the Hague is a political institution, organized in order to shift the blame on the Serbs "- Radovan Karadzic

The Hague Tribunal is an institution which embodies the de-sovereigntization of former Yugoslavian states within the framework of the strategic promotion of globalization, politically and legally clearing the West of its responsibility. The very existence of the court standing above the competence of sovereign states represents a waiver of the right to sovereignty. Not only are double standards of judicial practice against political enemies of the US and NATO a foundational feature of the Hague Tribunal, but the very fact of its existence is an anomaly for an international order supposedly based on the principle of sovereignty. This fact becomes apparent precisely in cases such as the trial of Karadzic. It is perfectly obvious in whose interests globalization unfolds, and its hegemonic nature is clearly manifested.