Does Europe judge Karadzic or itself?

He had stolen 14 years of his sentence! Already! Today he is 64 and has already stolen additional few days of his trial. First, his capture was protracted, and now we wait for his trial to begin... The ICTY is very careful to avoid any possible complaint about possibly hurting his "rights"? But, in reality, we all know, his case is like pedestal on which the killed beast is exposed to show to the village that the danger has gone. But has it? Europe does not want to realize that the trial of Karadzic is to a degree a trial of itself. Europe has difficulty to even pronounce term GENOCIDE in Srebrenica; likewise it is not happy to repeat the term HOLOCAUST.

For, if it had not been such an indolent or even partial stance of Europe toward the Evildoer (from 1992 to 1995) end expectations that Bosnia and Herzegovina would be crushed in less than few weeks, the Evildoer would not had been possible at all. At the end of the day, the crime and genocide did not happen somewhere at the Northern pole (using it just in sense of distance), but in very courtyard of Europe!

For, Europe with its establishment and their hesitation, if not produced, then made the Evildoer possible and today's trial must be, as much as for Him, as it is for his creation (Serb Entity created in Bosnia and Herzegovina) as well as it is the trial for them! No one in Bosnia expect any justice any more from Europe! The only hope of ours is to prevent any further injustice. Human and worldly dimensions are not able to weigh neither his crime, nor the weights of justice can balance its weight! The Evildoer is only the exponent of those who facilitated him to be what he is.

When one renowned British historian of the last century A. J. P Taylor, after twenty years of the beginning and fifteen since the end of Second world war wrote The Origins of the Second World War in which he challenged the "Nuremberg Thesis" according which, in short, the all evils of this world conflict were credited to Hitler and his gang, he was accused of revisionism, misinterpretation and else. But his book opened many controversies and long debate followed. But A. J. P Taylor was not some unknown radical fanatic but renowned and prominent scholar who smashed the all-accepted myth of channelling the guilt for such a huge criminal enterprise toward one person or his close group.

Basically, A. J. P. Taylor questioned the "Nuremberg Thesis" which shielded from the guilt world leaders of the time. "But an explanation existed which satisfied everybody and seemed to exhaust all dispute. This explanation was: Hitler. He planned the Second World War. His will alone caused it. This explanation obviously satisfied the "resisters" from Churchill to Namier. They had given it all along, were already giving it before the war broke out. They could say: "We told you so. There was no alternative to resisting Hitler from the first hour." The explanation also satisfied the "appeasers". They could claim that appeasement was a wise, and would have been a successful, policy if it had not been for the unpredictable fact that Germany was in the grip of a madman. Most of all, this explanation satisfied the Germans, except for a few unrepentant Nazis. After the First World War, the Germans tried to shift the guilt from themselves to the Allies, or to make out that no one was guilty. It was a simpler operation to shift the guilt from the Germans to Hitler. He was safely dead. Hitler may have done a great deal of harm to Germany while he was alive. But he made up for it by his final sacrifice in the Bunker. No amount of posthumous guilt could injure him. The blame for everything - the Second World War, the concentration camps, the gas chambers - could be loaded on to his uncomplaining shoulders. With Hitler guilty, every other German could claim innocence; and the Germans, previously the most strenuous opponents of war-guilt, now became its firmest advocates." (A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War, Touchsone, New York, 1961, str. 11-12)

A. J. P. Taylor's approach can exactly be applied in the case of Karadzic. It seems from what we see now that most of the "establishment" of Europe looks at his "achievement" i.e. Republika Srpska (Serb entity within Bosnia built on genocide and ethnic cleansing) with favour, since it allowed for Karadzic successor on the political scene in Bosnia to prise his work and political ideas most similar to those carried by Nazis in Germany.

Yes, clearly and precisely, the trial in Hague is positive legal process which has to be done for the history record. But, can Europe even imagine the case in which war criminals, those responsible for the worst mass killings dictate the flow of justice or even worse, after they finish their sentences, return home in full glory and with state tribute? The case of prime minister Milorad Dodik sending his entity government plane to pick the early released war criminal, Karadzic's successor on the throne Biljana Plavsic, and return her safely with honours of national hero is just sending scary message for the future, not just of Bosnia, but the whole Europe. Do we witness a new "appeasement" policy toward those who openly praise war criminals and their crimes?

By this trial of Karadzic in the ITCY Europe knowingly or not judges its "establishment" and its wrong policy of appeasing. They were able to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica and wide range of other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina before it was to late! This policy enabled Karadzic, as it had once enabled Hitler, to lead his people into disaster. Now is the time to stop them going further? Now is the time to wake up and save Serbian people from falling into even worse historical position that were Germans prior to denazification process. Serbs had still not gone through any of it and the highest priority of Europe is to help them finally begin this though journey. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not asking from Europe anything more than to instead of creating apartheid-based entity, creates mini version of "Western Germany" on its own soil. Victims of genocide and mass killings in Bosnia did not ask revenge for the crimes done against them: They only want the same as Europe wanted after the second World war - at least - preventing the future climate for criminals. In short: DENAZIFICATION of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the part that is designated as: Republika Srpska. For, the seed of crime has not been eradicated yet! By current European approach it was just put away, and the fear of its germination time is only a matter of time.

Mirnes Kovač

Editor, Preporod Magazine, Sarajevo