Comments on: Why Karadzic is not getting a fair trial

By: zeljko1963

zeljko1963 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:20:19 +0000

The fall of the iron curtain was a sad day for me. As the massess celebrated in Germany with the fall of the wall & Germany’s unification, I for one wasn’t happy at all. I new there would be trouble for our region. Who recognised the first indepent state from the breakup of Yugoslavia? You guessed it, Germany. Germany recoginzed it’s World war 1 & 2 satelites. Without thinking of the conflicts that were awaiting, land disputes, historical hatred & past bloodshed. The Serbian people have been demonised in the whole process, with the planned outcome to make sure their power & influence be minimalised & in some cases be extinguished. From the beginning of the sad chapter of the breakup of Yugoslavia by external influence, for which I have already pointed to as its largest instigator, Germany. The Serbian people where painted in the Western media as, the aggressors, Serbian aggression was the constant comment used by western media. Yet the Serbian people were fighting for their survival in Krajina (Croatia), Bosnia, Kosovo. My villiage of Zeravice in Bosina was burned to the ground & my relatives killed, I didn’t hear of any media coverage. The surounding Serbian villiages around Srebrenica were levelled by hordes of muslim fighters that used Srebrenca as cover as it was a protected (NATO) safe haven, and we know the outcome. With every conflict there are two sides to the story. Unfortunately, we are only given one side by the western media. Karadzic has already been found guitly by the Western media. It makes a joke of the Western high ground of morality, justice & democracy. I for one am not so trusting of the western media anymore. You can’t expect the Serbian people just to roll over like a dog, we survived 600 years under Turkish oppression. We will not be bullied anymore, as we have our right to self determination just like others. Forgot to mention, now there appears to be a new push by Vojvodina for independance. When does it stop? So much for a greater Serbia, that was used constantley by the Western media. The opposite is the truth don’t you think?

By: John Bennetts

John Bennetts — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:36:25 +0000

Typical lawyer’s analysis, Mr Barnes. You feel justified in stating that defense needs more than half a year. How long? Years? Decades?

Is not justice delayed also justice denied?

Western law has much to be proud of, but certainly not the time wasting, delays, arcane traditions, follies and nonsense of the judiciary and lawyers who extract their livlihoods and status, leech-like, over time.

If the judge adopts a no nonsence, get-on-with-it approach, then more power to him. The alternative, where nit-picking is elevated to an art form, is doomed at the outset to see the participants on all sides die of old age before a verdict is reached.

By: Liquid Len

Liquid Len — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:47:02 +0000

I have a good friend who served in the armed forces during that conflict and he is now a mental wreck as the result of what he saw and experienced there.

If he is found guilty I would love to sentence him to the same sleepless nightmare filled nights, constant agitation and fear, extreme anxiety and shattered family for the rest of his miserable life and may he live a long life.

PS He served as a Chaplain.

By: Bullmore's Ghost

Bullmore's Ghost — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:22:45 +0000

The ICC is a joke. Hand the bastard over for trial by his victims.

By: stephen martin

stephen martin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:15:12 +0000

You may well be right about getting a fair trial given the 1.3 million pages of documentation, it sounds like you would need 20 years to study a mass of paper like that.
If he is as guilty as everyone presumes, surely there is at least one serious charge that is pretty well cut and dried; try him on that count and forget the others, at least for the time being.
What we appear to have is a treasure trove for lawyers.

By: John Ryan

John Ryan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:15:41 +0000

Give him the same justice he gave the Bosnian men and boys in the camp,please the man deserves everything he will get,pity they don’t have a firing squad

By: Tim F

Tim F — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:22:42 +0000

As usual, both sides are too extreme here. On the one hand, it’s clearly unreasonable to expect Karadzic - or any defendant - to process such a staggering volume of evidence no matter how many legal advisers they have. On the other, Karadzic’s behaviour thus far suggests less a desire for procedural fairness and more a desire to grandstand, delay, and generally attention-seek. His repetitive - and utterly hopeless - attempts to use the alleged Holbrooke immunity to avoid prosecution, his insistence on self-representation when he could have superb counsel defending him and his constant attempts to deny the legitimacy of the court suggest that he is not engaging in the process in good faith. Which is hardly surprising, given the evidence seems pretty overwhelming.

Usually I’m a very strong advocate for the rights of defendants but in this case I’m skeptical. Marko Milanovic has an interesting take on Karadzic’s true motivations - and the potential consequences if the court doesn’t curb his behaviour - over at the European Journal of International Law blog: http://www.ejiltalk.org/the-aborted-start-of-the-karadzic-trial/#more-1684

By: Nadia David

Nadia David — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:44:36 +0000

Greg, your article smacks of a naivete I know you can’t possibly possess. And the bias only a defence lawyer can bring.

The ICC has long been recognised as more of a political process than anything resembling a criminal justice system. The court is presided over by a bench of judges from incredibly diverse legal systems, rules of evidence are often made up as they go simply because of the necessity to do so, and the briefs of evidence routinely involve the millions of pages you whinge about in Karadzic’s trial. That’s what happens when you are accused of killing thousands of people. Imagine what a trial of that scale would look like in Australia, given the boxes of evidence produced when there is just one victim.

I also wonder what you meant by your crack at “prosecutors”. As a former prosecutor, I laughed out loud at your assertion that “prosecutors, with the vast armory of the taxpayer-funded lawyers and investigators behind them, forget they are the Goliath…”. Prosecutors in what alternative universe? The ICC prosecutors usually have one or two lead investigators for each case, with a team of 3 or 4 investigators, all provided by law enforcement agencies from participating countries. This tiny team (a homicide investigation in Australia - for ONE victim - would involve an initial investigating team of ten or more, plus physical evidence analysts) is responsible for obtaining thousands of statements, pieces of physical evidence, coroner’s reports, footage, expert statements….and often from people scattered across the world and working in different jurisdictions.

I say all this because really, your defence of Karadzic’s antics is way off the mark. His trial is not a trial the way you think it should be, and the prosecution are not this all-powerful legal firm with unlimited funds and manpower as you assert. I would wager Karadzic has more lawyers on his team than there are prosecutors at the ICC.

As Serge Brammertz said, Karadzic knows what his defence is, if he has one, and it’s not buried in the minute details of that brief.

By: meski

meski — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:43:58 +0000

Give him a fair trial, but make sure you’ve got the rope handy.