Bosnian Genocide - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Background In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of longtime Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics threatened to split their union apart. This process intensified after the mid-1980s with the rise of the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who helped foment discontent between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Croatian, Bosniak and Albanian neighbors. In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence; during the war in Croatia that followed, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army supported Serbian separatists there in their brutal clashes with Croatian forces. Did You Know? In 2001, Serbian General Radislav Krstic, who played a major role in the Srebrenica massacre was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 46 years in prison. In Bosnia, Muslims represented the largest single population group by 1971.

More Serbs and Croats emigrated over the next two decades, and in a 1991 census Bosnia’s population of some 4 million was 44 percent Bosniak, 31 percent Serb, and 17 percent Croatian. Elections held in late 1990 resulted in a coalition government split between parties representing the three ethnicities (in rough proportion to their populations) and led by the Bosniak Alija Izetbegovic. As tensions built inside and outside the country, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from government and set up their own “Serbian National Assembly.” On March 3, 1992, after a referendum vote (which Karadzic’s party blocked in many Serb-populated areas), President Izetbegovic proclaimed Bosnia’s independence. Struggle for Control in Bosnia Far from seeking independence for Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs wanted to be part of a dominant Serbian state in the Balkans–the “Greater Serbia” that Serbian separatists had long envisioned.

In early May 1992, two days after the United States and the European Community (precursor to the European Union) recognized Bosnia’s independence, Bosnian Serb forces with the backing of Milosevic and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army launched their offensive with a bombardment of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. They attacked Bosniak-dominated town in eastern Bosnia, including Zvornik, Foca, and Visegrad, forcibly expelling Bosniak civilians from the region in a brutal process that later was identified as “ethnic cleansing.” (Ethnic cleansing differs from genocide in that its primary goal is the expulsion of a group of people from a geographical area and not the actual physical destruction of that group, even though the same methods–including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement–may be used.) Though Bosnian government forces tried to defend the territory, sometimes with the help of the Croatian army, Bosnian Serb forces were in control of nearly three-quarters of the country by the end of 1993, and Karadzic’s party had set up their own Republika Srpska in the east.

Most of the Bosnian Croats had left the country, while a significant Bosniak population remained only in smaller towns. Several peace proposals between a Croatian-Bosniak federation and Bosnian Serbs failed when the Serbs refused to give up any territory. The United Nations (U.N.) refused to intervene in the conflict in Bosnia, but a campaign spearheaded by its High Commissioner for Refugees provided humanitarian aid to its many displaced, malnourished and injured victims. Attack on Srebrenica: July 1995 By the summer of 1995, three towns in eastern Bosnia–Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde–remained under control of the Bosnian government. The U.N. had declared these enclaves “safe havens” in 1993, to be disarmed and protected by international peacekeeping forces. On July 11, however, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on Srebrenica, overwhelming a battalion of Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed there. Serbian forces subsequently separated the Bosniak civilians at Srebrenica, putting the women and girls on buses and sending them to Bosnian-held territory.

Some of the women were raped or sexually assaulted, while the men and boys who remained behind were killed immediately or bussed to mass killing sites. Estimates of Bosniaks killed by Serb forces at Srebrenica range from around 7,000 to more than 8,000. After Bosnian Serb forces captured Zepa that same month and exploded a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo market, the international community began to respond more forcefully to the ongoing conflict and its ever-growing civilian death toll. In August 1995, after the Serbs refused to comply with a U.N. ultimatum, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) joined efforts with Bosnian and Croatian forces for three weeks of bombing Bosnian Serb positions and a ground offensive. With Serbia’s economy crippled by U.N. trade sanctions and its military forces under assault in Bosnia after three years of warfare, Milosevic agreed to enter negotiations that October.

The U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio in November 1995 (which included Izetbegovic, Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman) resulted in the creation of a federalized Bosnia divided between a Croat-Bosniak federation and a Serb republic. International Response Though the international community did little to prevent the systematic atrocities committed against Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia while they were occurring, it did actively seek justice against those who committed them. In May 1993, the U.N. Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands. It was the first international tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46 and the first to prosecute genocide, among other war crimes. Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb military commander, General Ratko Mladic, were among those indicted by the ICTY for genocide and other crimes against humanity. Over the better part of the next two decades, the ICTY charged more than 160 individuals of crimes committed during conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Brought before the tribunal in 2002 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Slobodan Milosevic served as his own defense lawyer; his poor health led to long delays in the trial until he was found dead in his prison cell in 2006. In 2007, the International Court of Justice issued its ruling in a historic civil lawsuit brought by Bosnia against Serbia. Though the court called the massacre at Srebrenica genocide and said that Serbia “could and should” have prevented it and punished those who committed it, it stopped short of declaring Serbia guilty of the genocide itself. Tags Radovan Karadzic Convicted Of Genocide, Sentenced To 40 Years Radovan Karadzic Convicted Of Genocide, Sentenced To 40 Years World | Associated Press | Updated: March 24, 2016 21:25 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS A UN court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

(AFP Photo) THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A UN court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges today and sentenced him to 40 years in prison for orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout Bosnia's 1992-95 war that left 100,000 people dead. As he sat down after hearing his sentence, Karadzic slumped slightly in his chair, but showed little emotion. The UN court found Karadzic guilty of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in Europe's worst mass murder since the Holocaust. Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic was the only person in the Bosnian Serb leadership with the power to halt the genocide. In a carefully planned operation, Serb forces transported Muslim men to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before dumping their bodies into mass graves. Kwon said Karadzic and his military commander, Gen.

Ratko Mladic, intended "that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed." Karadzic was also held criminally responsible for murder, attacking civilians and terror for overseeing the deadly 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the war and for taking hostage UN peacekeepers. However, the court acquitted Karadzic in a second genocide charge, for a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces. Karadzic had faced a total of 11 charges and a maximum life sentence, but was given 40 years imprisonment. Karadzic can appeal the ruling. Prosecutors held Karadzic responsible as a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, which are blamed for the worst atrocities of the war. The 70-year-old Karadzic had insisted he was innocent and says his wartime actions were intended to protect Serbs. The trial is hugely significant for the UN tribunal and the development of international law. Karadzic is the most senior Bosnian Serb leader to face prosecution at the court housed in a former insurance company headquarters in The Hague.

Karadzic's conviction will most likely strengthen international jurisprudence on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control. "Victims and their families have waited for over two decades to see Karadzic's day of reckoning," Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The Karadzic verdict sends a powerful signal that those who order atrocities cannot simply wait out justice," Singh said. In Bosnia, which has remained divided since the war, posters displaying Karadzic's photo and saying "We are all Radovan" were plastered on walls in several towns in the Serb part of the country. Dozens of people gathered in a park in the Bosnian Serb town of Doboj to offer support to Karadzic. In Sarajevo, Amra Misic, 49, said "I took a day off to watch the verdict as I was waiting for this for 20 years. I wish him a long life," she said, referring to the fact that Karadzic is 70 years old and sentenced to 40 years.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, accused of fomenting deadly conflicts across the Balkans as Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s, died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial. Karadzic's trial was one of the final acts at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. The court, set up in 1993, indicted 161 suspects. Of them, 80 were convicted and sentenced, 18 acquitted, 13 sent back to local courts and 36 had the indictments withdrawn or died. Apart from Karadzic, three suspects remain on trial, including his military chief, General Ratko Mladic, and Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. Eight cases are being appealed and two defendants are to face retrials. The judgment in Seselj's case is scheduled for next Thursday. Karadzic was indicted along with Mladic in 1995, but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008. At the time, he was posing as a New Age healer, Dr.

Dragan Dabic, and was disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. More than 20 years after the guns fell silent in Bosnia, Karadzic is still considered a hero in Serb-controlled parts of the divided country. Last weekend, current Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik opened a student dormitory named after Karadzic and had Karadzic's daughter and wife unveil the plaque. Speaking at the opening, Dodik called the trial "humiliating" and said those who fail to understand why Karadzic is hailed this way are "shallow-minded." His words were followed by resounding applause. Radovan Karadzic convicted of genocide, gets 40 years | Chicago Sun-Times Chicago News 03/24/2016, 01:15am Radovan Karadzic convicted of genocide, gets 40 years Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic in court Thursday for the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Robin van Lonkhuijsen, pool photo via AP Associated Press Sign-Up for our News & Politics Newsletter Sign-Up THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted Thursday of genocide and nine other charges by a United Nations war crimes tribunal and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The U.N. court found Karadzic guilty of orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout Bosnia’s 1992-95 war that left 100,000 people dead. As he sat down after hearing his sentence, Karadzic slumped slightly in his chair but showed little emotion. He plans to appeal the convictions. The U.N. court found Karadzic guilty of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in Europe’s worst mass murder since the Holocaust. Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic was the only person in the Bosnian Serb leadership with the power to halt the genocide but instead gave an order for prisoners to be transported from one location to another to be killed.

In a carefully planned operation, Serb forces transported Muslim men to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before dumping their bodies into mass graves. Kwon said Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, intended “that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed.” Karadzic also was held criminally responsible for murder, attacking civilians and terror for overseeing the deadly 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the war and for taking hostage U.N. peacekeepers. But the court didn’t hold Karadzic responsible for a second genocide charge, over a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces. Karadzic — a psychiatrist and poet who became the leader of the Serbian resistance in Bosnia — had faced a total of 11 charges and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison, which prosecutors had urged be his punishment. But the court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said 40 years amounted to the same thing for the 70-year-old Karadzic.

“Overall, we are satisfied with the outcome,” Brammertz said. He said prosecutors would carefully study the judgment before deciding whether to appeal the one genocide acquittal. Peter Robinson, who is one of Karadzic’s legal advisers, said Karadzic was shocked to have been found guilty and plans to appeal. “Dr. Karadzic is disappointed. He’s astonished,” Robinson told reporters. “He feels the trial chamber took inference instead of evidence in reaching the conclusions that it did.” The announcement of the verdict and sentence were widely watched on TV. In Sarajevo, Amra Misic, 49, said: “I took a day off to watch the verdict, as I was waiting for this for 20 years. I wish him a long life.” Prosecutors held Karadzic responsible as a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, which are blamed for the worst atrocities of the war. The 70-year-old Karadzic insisted he was innocent, claimed he was “a man of peace” and said his wartime actions were intended to protect Serbs. The trial is hugely significant for the U.N. tribunal and for the development of international law.

Karadzic is the most senior Bosnian Serb leader to face prosecution at the court, which is housed in a former insurance company headquarters in The Hague. In this photo taken Sunday, senior forensic anthropologist Dragana Vucetic walks inside a facility where are more than 4,500 body-bags containing mortal remains recovered from mass graves from the Bosnian war wait to be identified, in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. AP photo U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesman, Fanhan Haq, told reporters the judgment “sends a strong signal to all who are in positions of responsibility that they will be held accountable for their actions and shows once again that fugitives cannot outrun the international community’s collective resolve to make sure that they face justice according to the law.” Natasa Kandic, a Serbian human rights expert, said the genocide verdict against Karadzic is a landmark because it will no longer allow for new interpretations of wartime events during the worst carnage in Europe since World War II. “This ruling is an obstacle for revisions of history, for what has really happened” in Bosnia during the war, Kandic said. “This is the most important verdict.

He was the supreme commander. He was convicted for acts he knew about. It is justice for both the victims and Karadzic himself.” Kandic said, “It would have been more logical that he received the life sentence, but this one is more or less the same.” Karadzic’s conviction will most likely strengthen international jurisprudence on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control. Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said of Thursday’s verdict and sentencing: “Victims and their families have waited for over two decades to see Karadzic’s day of reckoning. The Karadzic verdict sends a powerful signal that those who order atrocities cannot simply wait out justice.” In Bosnia, which has remained divided since the war, posters displaying Karadzic’s photo and saying “We are all Radovan” were plastered on walls in several towns in the Serb part of the country. Dozens of people gathered in a park in the Bosnian Serb town of Doboj to offer support to Karadzic.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, accused of fomenting deadly conflicts across the Balkans as Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s, died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial. Karadzic’s trial is one of the final acts at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. The court, set up in 1993, indicted 161 suspects. Of them, 80 were convicted and sentenced, 18 acquitted, 13 sent back to local courts, and 36 had the indictments withdrawn or died. Apart from Karadzic, three suspects remain on trial, including his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. Eight cases are being appealed, and two defendants are to face retrials. The judgment in Seselj’s case is scheduled for next Thursday. This photo released by Belgrade’s Healthy Life magazine in 2008, taken at an undisclosed location in Belgrade, shows former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic with glasses, long white hair and a beard.

Healthy Life magazine via AP Karadzic was indicted along with Mladic in 1995 but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008. At the time, he was posing as a New Age healer, Dr. Dragan Dabic, and was disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. More than 20 years after the guns fell silent in Bosnia, Karadzic is still considered a hero in Serb-controlled parts of the divided country. Last weekend, current Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik opened a student dormitory named after Karadzic and had Karadzic’s daughter and wife unveil the plaque. Speaking at the opening, Dodik called the trial “humiliating” and said those who fail to understand why Karadzic is hailed this way are “shallow-minded.” His words were followed by resounding applause. Born in 1945 into a poor family in Savnik, Yugoslavia, Karadzic moved to Sarajevo in 1960 to study medicine.

By 1971, he was practicing psychiatry in the ethnically mixed Bosnian capital, writing poetry and a children’s book. In 1985, he was tried for embezzlement of public property while building a family house and served 11 months in jail. But by 1990, with nationalism on the rise, Karadzic shifted his focus to politics, forming the Serb Democratic Party that led to his election to parliament in the first democratic elections after the fall of communism the same year. As the Yugoslav republics were breaking away one by one, first Slovenia, then Croatia, Karadzic warned non-Serbs in Bosnia not to declare independence from Serb dominated Yugoslavia, telling them clearly what would happen if they did. “Do not think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and do not think that you will not perhaps lead the Muslim people into annihilation because the Muslims cannot defend themselves if there is war,” he said in October 1991. A man walks past a mural depicting Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday.

AP photo Karadzic, who saw himself as a historic figure who would unify all Serbs in a common country, led the Serb resistance to the majority vote for Bosnia’s independence in 1992 and declared himself the leader of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs armed and backed by the Yugoslav Army conquered 70 percent of the country, laying siege to its capital and killing and expelling non-Serbs from the territory they controlled. The conflict cliamed more than 100,000 lives and forced over two million people from their homes. In July 1995, his troops overran the town of Srebrenica and killed more than 8,000 men and boys in the worst massacre in Europe since the Nazi era. Karadzic was indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in 1995, one of the 11 counts relates to genocide in Srebrenica. He went into hiding and evaded arrest for 13 years before he was caught in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008, where he hid masked as a New Age healer.

He made himself unrecognizable growing a thick beard and long, grey hair. Key dates in the life of Radovan Karadzic June 19, 1945: Born in Savnik, Yugoslavia, in what is now the Republic of Montenegro. July 12, 1990: Becomes a founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party in Bosnia-Herzegovina. March 27, 1992: Becomes president of Serbia’s National Security Council. April 6, 1992: Bosnia is recognized as an independent state by the United Nations. May 12, 1992: Elected president of the three-person presidency of the Serbian republic in Bosnia. Dec. 17, 1992-July 19, 1996: Serves as sole president of Serb Republic in Bosnia. He is also supreme commander of the armed forces. July 1, 1991-Nov. 30, 1995: According to his U.N.

indictment, Karadzic participates in war crimes to gain control of parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina that have been proclaimed part of the Serb Republic, using terror tactics and a campaign of persecution and deportations. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic in the courtroom for the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands on Thursday. AP pool photo April 1, 1992-November 30, 1995: Bosnian Serb forces engaged in a 44-month siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. July 11-18, 1995: Bosnian Serb forces killed thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica. 1996: Karadzic vanishes from the public eye. 2003: Bosnia’s top international official freezes bank accounts and other assets of Karadzic’s close relatives who are suspected of helping him hide.

July 2005: Karadzic’s wife makes public appeal for him to surrender “for the sake of your family.” 2005: Karadzic publishes a book of poetry in Serbia, titled “Under The Left Breast Of The Century.” A spokeswoman in The Hague expresses outrage that he is free to do so. July 21, 2008: Karadzic is arrested on a Belgrade bus while posing as New Age healer Dr. Dragan Dabic and disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. July 30, 2008: Karadzic is flown to International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’s detention block. July 31, 2008: A clean-shaven Karadzic makes first appearance in tribunal courtroom, refuses to enter pleas. Oct. 26, 2009: Karadzic trial starts, but he boycotts the hearing. Oct. 7, 2014: Final day of trial. Judges begin lengthy deliberations. March 24, 2016: Judges deliver verdicts.

Three Bosnian Muslim woman who lost their family members in Srebrenica — Fatima Mujic, Vasvija Kadic and Mirsada Kahriman, from left to right — react as they watch a broadcast of the sentencing of Radovan Karadzic, with photos of missing Bosnian people plastered on a walls at the union of Srebrenica mothers, in Tuzla, Bosnia. AP photo Ex-Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic Guilty of Genocide - NBC News Mar 24 2016, 11:31 am ET Ex-Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic Guilty of Genocide Share 'Butcher of Bosnia' Sentenced for Atrocities 1:00 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog <iframe src="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted of genocide and nine other charges Thursday at a U.N. court, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal found Karadzic guilty of orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout Bosnia's 1992-95 war that left 100,000 people dead. Radovan Karadzic Robin van Lonkhuijsen / AP The U.N. court found Karadzic criminally responsible for genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered. He was also held criminally responsible for murder, attacking civilians and terror for overseeing the deadly 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the war. However, the court didn't hold Karadzic responsible in a second genocide charge, for a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces. Play Copy this code to your website or blog <iframe src="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Branded the "Butcher of Bosnia," he had faced a total of 11 charges and a maximum life sentence, but was given 40 years imprisonment. Karadzic can appeal the ruling.

Prosecutors had accused Karadzic of being responsible as a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, which are accused of the worst atrocities of the war. The 70-year-old Karadzic had insisted he was innocent and says his wartime actions were intended to protect Serbs. Related: Two Decades After Being Shelled, Sarajevo Landmark Is Reborn The trial is hugely significant for the U.N. tribunal and the development of international law. Karadzic is the most senior Bosnian Serb leader to face prosecution at the court housed in a former insurance company headquarters in The Hague. Karadzic's conviction will most likely strengthen international jurisprudence on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control. A Bosnian special-forces soldier returns fire as he and civilians are targeted by Serbian snipers in downtown Sarajevo on April 6, 1992. The soldier was fatally shot seconds later.

MIKE PERSSON / AFP/Getty Images, file Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, accused of fomenting deadly conflicts across the Balkans as Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s, died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial. Karadzic's trial is one of the final acts at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. The court, set up in 1993, indicted 161 suspects. Of them, 80 were convicted and sentenced, 18 acquitted, 13 sent back to local courts and 36 had the indictments withdrawn or died. Apart from Karadzic, three suspects remain on trial, including his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. Eight cases are being appealed and two defendants are to face retrials. The judgment in Seselj's case is scheduled for next Thursday. Radovan Karadzic posed as a doctor of alternative medicine, sporting long hair, a beard and glasses to hide his face before he was arrested.

REUTERS, file Karadzic was indicted along with Mladic in 1995, but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008. At the time, he was posing as a New Age healer, Dr. Dragan Dabic, and was disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. Karadzic defended himself through his 497-day trial and called 248 witnesses, poring over many of the millions of pages of evidence with the help of a court-appointed legal adviser. In an interview ahead of the verdict, Karadzic said that he had worked to uphold peace and deserved praise, not punishment. "My permanent fight to preserve the peace, prevent the war and decrease the sufferings of everyone regardless of religion were an exemplary effort deserving respect rather than persecution," he told news portal Balkan Insight.

Munira Subasic, whose son was among the victims of Srebrenica, told Reuters that the verdict was "very important to show new generations, especially those in Serbia who have been poisoned with hatred already, what really happened in Bosnia." Play Copy this code to your website or blog <iframe src="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> More than 20 years after the guns fell silent in Bosnia, Karadzic is still considered a hero in Serb-controlled parts of the divided country. Last weekend, current Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik opened a student dormitory named after Karadzic and had Karadzic's daughter and wife unveil the plaque. Speaking at the opening, Dodik called the trial "humiliating" and said those who fail to understand why Karadzic is hailed this way are "shallow-minded." His words were followed by resounding applause.

Contributor The Associated Press and Reuters Former Bosnian Serb leader found guilty in one of the most important war crimes trials since WWII - LA Times Former Bosnian Serb leader found guilty in one of the most important war crimes trials since WWII Netherlands War Crimes Karadzic Associated Press Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic listens to his sentence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Thursday. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic listens to his sentence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Thursday. (Associated Press) Christina Boyle Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is guilty of multiple war crimes, a United Nations tribunal at The Hague decided Thursday in one of the most important war crimes trials since World War II. The 70-year-old psychologist-turned-politician was convicted for his role as the architect of “ethnic cleansing” in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The conflict caused the former Yugoslavia to fall apart, left 100,000 dead and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes.

The verdict was handed down by United Nations judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where Karadzic faced 11 separate charges. See the most-read stories this hour >> Read the story He was found guilty in 10 of the 11 counts, with only one charge of genocide not upheld. Karadzic appeared stoic as the verdict was handed down, standing in front of the judge dressed in a suit and tie. "These are among the most egregious of crimes in international criminal law," judge O-Gon Kwon said. Karadzic was found criminally responsible for the deadly 44-month siege of Sarajevo, where nearly 12,000 died because of a plan “to commission murder, terror and unlawful attacks against civilians,” the judge said as he delivered his verdict. Read the story Karadzic was also found guilty of the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia, which amounted to genocide.

Instead of preventing the killings in Srebrenica, Karadzic “himself ordered that the Bosnian male detainees be transferred elsewhere to be killed.” The only count that Karadzic was cleared of related to accusations of genocide in municipalities in Bosnia. The tribunal found that although crimes against humanity occurred, the events in those areas did not amount to a willful intent to exterminate a population. Karadzic was convicted of all remaining counts: one count of genocide in Srebrenica, five of crimes against humanity, four of war crimes that included deportation of civilians, murder and hostage taking relating to the abduction of U.N. peacekeepers. Key dates in the life of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic , whose trial on 11 charges including two counts of genocide concludes Thursday: June 19, 1945: Born in Savnik, Yugoslavia, in what is now the Republic of Montenegro. July 12, 1990: A founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party...

Key dates in the life of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic , whose trial on 11 charges including two counts of genocide concludes Thursday: June 19, 1945: Born in Savnik, Yugoslavia, in what is now the Republic of Montenegro. July 12, 1990: A founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party... (Associated Press) During the five-year trial, prosecutors say he authorized the forcible removal of non-Serbs from Bosnia and as commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, he was responsible for their actions. Karadzic denied the charges and said they were the actions of a rogue group of individuals who were not acting under his command. The tribunal instead found that he was instrumental to the slaughter. Large numbers of Bosnians who survived massacres and concentration camps were expected to travel to hear the verdict or watch on their televisions at home. His trial is symbolically important for his victims, but Karadzic's legacy continues to be deeply divisive in a country that is still riddled with ethnic tensions and a faltering economy.

Just last weekend, the Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik named a student dormitory after Karadzic during a ceremony attended by his wife and daughter. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic has been found guilty of multiple charges of war crimes by a U.N. tribunal at The Hague. A U.S.-brokered peace deal finally brought the fighting to an end in 1995, and Karadzic was indicted in 1995. However he eluded arrest for 13 years until he was finally tracked down in Belgrade in 2008 and extradited to The Hague. He had been living as Dr. Dragan Dabic, an alternative health healer, and had grown a thick beard to mask his appearance. In a recent, rare interview, Karadzic sought to portray himself as a peacemaker, not a mass murderer. He said that he thought his actions deserved "respect rather than persecution" and told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network that he did not think he would be convicted.

“I know what I wanted, what I did, even what I dreamed of, and there is no reasonable court that would convict me, no matter how many high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials have been convicted,” he said in the interview. Boyle is a special correspondent. ALSO Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide over Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia | The Independent Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide over Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia Karadzic faces 40 years imprisonment Thursday 24 March 2016 14:39 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic in the courtroom for the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia AP Radovan Karadzic has been found guilty of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, a UN court has announced. The former Bosnian Serb leader has been convicted of nine other charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal found Karadzic “criminally responsible” for murder, attacking civilians and terror, while overseeing the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the country’s 1992 to 1995 war that left 100,000 people dead. Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic used a campaign of sniping and shelling that targeted the city’s civilians in order to further his political goals. Karadzic was found guilty of 10 of 11 charges. He faced two counts of genocide but was not found responsible for a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces. A man walks past a mural on the wall of bar depicting Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade, Serbia, 24 March 2016 EPA Prosecutors accused Karadzic of being responsible as a political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, which are accused of atrocities in war. Karadzic, who represented himself throughout his eight-year trial, has maintained his innocence and claimed his wartime actions were intended to protect Serbs.

The 70-year-old is the most senior Bosnian Serb leader to face prosecution at the court in The Hague, and his trial is hugely significant for the UN tribunal. The result is a development for international law and should strengthen international jurisprudence on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control.

Read more Radovan Karadzic sentenced to 40 years in prison for Bosnian war crimes - World - CBC News Radovan Karadzic sentenced to 40 years in prison for Bosnian war crimes Former Serb leader found criminally responsible for mass killings at Srebrenica in 1995 The Associated Press Posted: Mar 24, 2016 11:03 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 25, 2016 11:42 AM ET Radovan Karadzic gets 40 years for Bosnian war crimes 2:34 Related Stories International justice: Infamous war crimes cases A UN war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges Thursday for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, the worst carnage in Europe since World War II.

Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in Serb atrocities that included the Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in Europe's worst mass murder since the Holocaust, and for directing the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo. In pronouncing the verdict, presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, intended "that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed." Srebrenica massacre anniversary ceremonies marred by attack on Serbian PM Karadzic, the judge said, was the only person in the Bosnian Serb leadership with the power to halt the genocide, but instead gave an order for prisoners to be transported from one location to another to be killed. In the carefully planned 1995 operation, Serb forces moved Muslim men and boys to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before dumping their bodies into mass graves. Upon hearing the sentence, the 70-year-old Karadzic slumped slightly in his chair, but otherwise showed little emotion.

He plans to appeal the convictions. A woman mourns at the grave of a family member on July 11, 2015 at the Potocari Memorial Centre near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. The remains of more than 6,000 victims of the Srebrenica massacre are buried at the Potocari cemetery. (AFP/Getty Images) The former leader, who was arrested in Serbia in 2008 after more than a decade in hiding, is the highest Bosnian Serb official to be sentenced by the Netherlands-based court. Although 20 years in coming, the trial is hugely significant for the development of international law. Karadzic's conviction will likely strengthen international jurisprudence on the criminal responsibility of political leaders for atrocities committed by forces under their control. "Victims and their families have waited for over two decades to see Karadzic's day of reckoning," Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"The Karadzic verdict sends a powerful signal that those who order atrocities cannot simply wait out justice." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman, Fanhan Haq, told reporters the judgment "sends a strong signal to all who are in positions of responsibility that they will be held accountable for their actions and shows once again that fugitives cannot outrun the international community's collective resolve to make sure that they face justice according to the law." Karadzic had faced a total of 11 charges and a maximum life sentence. However, the court acquitted him of a second genocide charge, for a campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces. A war crimes tribunal verdict for Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj is expected on March 31. (Darko Vojinovic/Associated Press) Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, but the court's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said 40 years amounted to the same thing for the aging Karadzic. "Overall, we are satisfied with the outcome," Brammertz said, adding that prosecutors would carefully study the judgment before deciding whether to appeal the one genocide acquittal.

Karadzic had insisted he was innocent and claimed throughout the six-year court proceedings that his wartime actions were intended to protect the Serbs. Peter Robinson, part of Karadzic's legal team, said he would appeal. "Dr. Karadzic is disappointed. He's astonished," Robinson told reporters. "He feels the trial chamber took inference instead of evidence in reaching the conclusions that it did." The verdict and sentence were met with expressions of relief and satisfaction from Bosnian Muslims and anger by Serb nationalists, thousands of whom took to the streets of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, to protest. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, is seen Thursday in the courtroom for the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. (Robin van Lonkhuijsen via Associated Press) In Sarajevo, Amra Misic, 49, said: "I took a day off to watch the verdict as I was waiting for this for 20 years.

I wish him a long life." In Bosnia, which has remained ethnically divided since the war, posters displaying Karadzic's photo and saying "We are all Radovan" were plastered on walls in several towns in the Serb-controlled part of the country. "This was only the first half of the process," said Karadzic's daughter Sonja, expressing the prevailing sentiment among the Serbs that the UN court and the West in general are highly biased against them. Bosnia's president, Bakir Izetbegovic, whose father led the Muslims during the war, said the verdict against Karadzic is a verdict to a "horrific ideology and policies." He said it was a "judgment about the past that is important for the future." Izetbegovic said the ruling confirmed that crimes in Bosnia were systematically planned and executed. "There is no punishment that can give any satisfaction to the victims, but the civilized world has still shown that they understand their suffering," he said.

"The world has sent a message that no one will be cleared of responsibility for crimes." Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, accused of fomenting deadly conflicts across the Balkans as Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s, died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial. Karadzic was indicted along with Mladic in 1995, but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade in July 2008. At the time, he was posing as a New Age healer, Dr. Dragan Dabic, and was disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. Karadzic's trial was one of the final acts at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. The court, set up in 1993, indicted 161 suspects. Of them, 80 were convicted and sentenced, 18 acquitted, 13 sent back to local courts and 36 had the indictments withdrawn or died. Three suspects remain on trial, including his military chief, Mladic, and Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj.

Eight cases are being appealed and two defendants are to face retrials. The judgment in Seselj's case is scheduled for next Thursday. Report Typo or Error Send Feedback To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities). Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted. By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines . Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Radovan Karadzic arrested - LA Times Radovan Karadzic arrested Sarajevo Hidajet Delic / Associated Press Residents of Sarajevo celebrate early today in the streets after hearing the news that Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade.

Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, are seen as the main culprits of the Bosnian war in 1992 through 1995, which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The two men are indicted in connection with the Sarajevo siege during which up to 11,000 people were killed, and the Srebrenica genocide of 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Residents of Sarajevo celebrate early today in the streets after hearing the news that Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade. Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, are seen as the main culprits of the Bosnian war in 1992 through 1995, which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The two men are indicted in connection with the Sarajevo siege during which up to 11,000 people were killed, and the Srebrenica genocide of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

(Hidajet Delic / Associated Press) Newspaper Amel Emric / Associated Press A Bosnian woman reads the country's daily newspaper with a front-page headline: "Karadzic Arrested" and a photo of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. A judge early today finished interrogating the arrested wartime leader, triggering a procedure to hand him over to a U.N. war crimes court. Karadzic is the accused mastermind of Europe's worst massacre since World War II. A Bosnian woman reads the country's daily newspaper with a front-page headline: "Karadzic Arrested" and a photo of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. A judge early today finished interrogating the arrested wartime leader, triggering a procedure to hand him over to a U.N. war crimes court. Karadzic is the accused mastermind of Europe's worst massacre since World War II. (Amel Emric / Associated Press)

Question: Radovan Karadzic is associated with genocide between 1992 and 1995 in which country?
Answer: Bosnia