Justice for Victims – Life Imprisonment

“We heard many things that were called a sad image. Terrorising of the capital city, random selling, mass executions, using hostages, cruelty to which numerous victims were subjected… A tragedy too big to be understood, but what they have in common is Radovan Karadzic,” said Prosecutor Alan Tieger.He mentioned that Karadzic’s insincere regret and orchestrated decisions were like salt on each victim’s wound, adding that the victims were suffering without their loved ones and trying to face the horrors of the past.On the second day of presentation of its closing statement The Hague Prosecution spoke about the terror in Sarajevo, as well as the forced resettlement and massacre in Srebrenica.The Hague Prosecution said that the Defence’s theories that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, attacked its own civilians in Sarajevo were rumours and unclear allegations.“The allegation that ABiH members were constantly shooting at their civilians contradicts the actual evidence. Those are unsustainable theories with which they try to diminish the responsibility of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps,” the Prosecution said. The Sarajevo-Romanija Corps was part of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, whose Supreme Commander was Radovan Karadzic in his capacity as President of Republika Srpska.The Hague Prosecution reminded of the campaign aimed at terrorising local population in Sarajevo by conducting sniper attacks, shelling and throwing modified air bombs from 1992 to 1995. “The campaign was such that there was no safe place. Terror, in other words. Karadzic supervised the terror along with others. They could have improved the situation by ensuring the inflow of gas or opening the airport, but they did not do it. They used those necessary conditions as a lever in negotiations,” Prosecutor Katrina Gustafson said.The Prosecution said that Karadzic “conducted a campaign of terror and rejected a river of protests against such situation.” Besides that, Gusafson considers that Karadzic influenced the intensity of terror in Sarajevo and that civilians were under his mercy, which he did not demonstrate.“Karadzic once said that he was not capable of stopping the shelling, saying that those were inexperienced military forces,” Gustafson said, saying that this was another lie presented at the trial.Also, The Hague Prosecution considers Karadzic’s allegations that he was not sufficiently informed through the command chain were false as well. “There is huge evidence that show that the attacks on Sarajevo were routine and accepted at each level of the chain,” Gustafson said.When it comes to genocide in Srebrenica, The Hague Prosecution referred to Defence’s allegations that the number of victims was below 7,000 and that bodies of execution victims and those killed in battles were mixed.“Graves contain exclusively the bodies of victims of executions. Blindfolds, artifacts, were found in some of the graves,” the Prosecution said, adding that the official number of the missing was 7,905 and that at least 5,850 victims had been determined according to DNA profiles.As they said, the remaining victims were executed due to their “persistence to kill each man from Srebrenica.”Karadzic, who is also charged with genocide in seven other Bosnian municipalities, is due to begin presenting his closing statement tomorrow, October 1.