Thursday 24 July 2008

Interesting times

The news of Radovan Karadzic's arrest in Belgrade has bought sharply contrasting reactions from the Bosnians. Some are dancing on the streets - in Sarajevo and Tuzla there were celebrations all night. Others, mainly in the Bosnian Serb section of Bosnia are furious, especially at the perceived betrayal of the Bosnian Serbs by the Serbians proper. Many in Serbia itself are angry, flags of Karadzic were waved at a Serbian football match in Belgrade by masked supporters.

Bosnians are glued to the news and they believe that the ICTY (the International Court which tries those accused of war crimes during the 1992-95 war in the former Yugoslavia) has specific evidence as yet unseen which will convict Karadzic of the crime of genocide throughout all of Bosnia, not just in Srebrenica.

We are not in Bosnia yet, still conducting the round Britain odyssey bidding farewell to our nearest and dearest. I am sad not to be there to witness the reactions to this news but looking forward to getting there to watch the political developments and their impact on individual Bosnians.

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