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Re:Serbs arrest top fugitive, July 22
I was pleased with the arrest of 63-year-old Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men, who was first indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal 13 years ago. Karadzic faces genocide charges for his active role in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
The arrest is a significant breakthrough for Serbia, a country which has faced international isolation while Karadzic and fellow war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander, have remained at large.
"This is a very significant day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade," said Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the international community's former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, called the arrest an "extremely important piece of justice for the world at large."
Waris Shere, Winnipeg
Now that Radovan Karadzic has finally been caught, when will warrants be issued for the arrests of George W. Bush and Tony Blair who have been politically responsible for far more Muslim deaths?
Keith Nolan, Caldragh, Ireland
One of the most horrifying scenes l have ever witnessed and it will never leave my mind, was watching on television as Radovan Karadzic separated men and boys from wives and mothers while UN troops stood by helplessly watching with no power to intervene.
I said to anyone who would listen at the time that it was a repeat of the Nazis separating women and children from their families to be sent to the death camps in Germany and Poland. This was never supposed to happen again but it did with the whole world watching it on television.
This, in my view, was one of the greatest failures of the United Nations. That no world leaders intervened was unbelievable and the media went totally silent when they knew what was going to happen.
Karadzic knew the UN troops had no authority to intervene and he acted brazenly with the television cameras rolling. The men were all taken to a nearby soccer field and murdered. The holocaust was repeated and the world stood by and watched. Shame, shame.
Patrick Hurley, Oakville
The suggestion that this trial marks the first American war crimes trial since World War II is wrong. There have been a number of war crimes trials before the International Court of Justice in the Hague since World War II, and they continue today. It is an impartial world court.
The fact that the U.S. does not recognize it, because its own citizens could be called before it, does not alter the fact that it should be the only court that has jurisdiction on war crimes.
Tony ten Kortenaar, Toronto
The war crimes court will finally be able to try former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.
By contrast, the military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay is beginning the trial for war crimes of Osama bin Laden's driver, even though the judges there will have to make do with the testimony that is left over after the evidence from "highly coercive" interrogation is disallowed.
The comparison must discourage Americans demanding the punishment of evil-doers. It can only be hoped that further prosecutions at Guantanamo Bay will target bin Laden's maid and pool cleaner so as to make a clean sweep of all those threatening our Western way of life.
Jim Maloy, Barrie
To try Osama Bin Laden's former driver (Salim Hamdan) for "war crimes" is absolutely ludicrous. Surely the first to be placed in the dock for such horrible crimes should be Dick Cheney, followed by his stooge, George Bush, and then by Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleeza Rice.
John Munro, Etobicoke
