One of the world's most wanted war crimes fugitives has been arrested. Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic was taken into custody by Serbian authorities and will be extradited to stand trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
Mr. Karadzic has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Karadzic is suspected of masterminding the 1995 genocide of more than eight-thousand Muslims in Srebrenica -- Europe's worst slaughter since the Second World War. Other alleged offenses include a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing directed at non-Serbs, organized attacks on places of worship, and the operation of concentration camps.
Serge Brammertz is the war crimes tribunal's head prosecutor. He said the arrest of Radovan Karadzic is very important "for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade. It is also an important day for international justice," said Mr. Brammertz, "because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law."
Ratko Mladic, the military leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war and Radovan Karadzic's right-hand man, remains at large. Mr. Mladic has been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the persecution and ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats. The arrest of Mr. Karadzic give us renewed hope that Mr. Mladic and Goran Hadzic, the remaining ICTY fugitives, will also be arrested and transferred to The Hague.
The United State congratulated the government of Serbia for the arrest of Mr. Karadzic. "This operation," said White House press secretary Dana Perino in a statement, "is an important demonstration of the Serbian government's determination to honor its commitment to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia." There is no better tribute to the victims of the war's atrocities than bringing their perpetrators to justice.
