Radovan Karadzic stopped boycotting his prosecution for war crimes at The Hague this week adding legitimacy to the trial seen as “seen as key to … closure” for the survivors and victims’ families of the Balkans genocide of the 1990s. Karadzic also asked this week for time to prepare his defense. The U.K.’s Channel 4 released several videos this week dealing with the events in the Balkans including a 1993 interview with Karadzic. You can watch them here. The New York Times calls it a preview of his upcoming defense. His trial has been postponed until next March. Below is a transcript of the Channel 4 interview:
Snow: Now joining us from Belgrade is Dr. Radovan Karadzic the leader of the Bosnian Serbs who has been watching our report in Belgrade. Dr. Karadzic, this is still more evidence that Serbs are raping Bosnian women.
Karadzic: Well, as a matter of fact in this war there happened many terrible things on all three sides and committed by all three sides but it is out of question that it was part of any strategy and it is out of question that this was done by knowledge of army officers or civilian authorities.
Snow: Dr. Karadzic let me stop you there. There were two testaments there from men in uniform, Serbian men in uniform, who gave the names – the first names – of people who told them to rape these women. Those are orders.
Karadzic: Well we will have to make real investigation on that. I know that some criminals are testifying in Muslim prisons against Serbs and that’s really something that is not true. This is something that is framed, being staged by Muslim forces. I know that there was some rapes on civilian side too but never with knowledge of army officers and we are investigating all of allegations. You know that in the peace you have sexual derelicts and psychopaths who do rapes even in Great Britain – rape people and kill people.
Snow: Dr Karadzic, this is so widespread. It is detailed by the E.C. It is detailed by Amnesty International. We have detailed it. I have a list here of 43 camps – places where women are being raped – places as widespread as Visegrad, Doboj, Kitaj Gorod, Sanski Most, Banja Luka, Teslic; that is all over Bosnia that this is happening and you say ‘well, these are isolated civilian incidents, nobody’s doing this under orders, I’ll look into it’. It’s not good enough, is it Dr. Karadzic?
Karadzic: That’s out of question that those campuses exist at all. We had some open refugee campuses but in prisons for war prisoners there was no civilians let alone women. So 43 campuses, this is out of question. All of our prisons are open for the entire media, so Channel 4 send, first send cameras in our prisons.
Snow: But these women that we have spoken to were civilians. We’ve seen them. You’ve seen them on the tape. They are ordinary Bosnian women.
Karadzic: But they haven’t been in any prison, they have been in refugee campuses.
Snow: Well, the differenc between camp or detention or whatever… there are people who stay in camps because they are frightened to go out, that’s the same in a sense as being in a prison.
Karadzic: But they are not detained by force they are detained by events. And there may be some abuses and there may be some cases that should be investigated and punished but this is out of question to say that this was a sort of system or sort of strategy.
Snow: But you see the outgoing Secretary of State in the United States, Lawrence Eagleburger, who is going to stay on in the State Department for the next six weeks, at least, who speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian, he testifies that things are so bad that you personally are going to have to answer as a war criminal at the end of all this.
Karadzic: I would like you to bring some Serbian woman that have suffered in Muslim prisons and even in whorehouses for Muslim soldiers. And this is quite unbalanced approach
Snow: We will of course look into that Dr. Karadzic, there’s no question and Amnesty have also mentioned that that is true. But what they say is the vast weight of evidence is that the main proportion of victims are Muslim women at the hands of your people.
Karadzic: No, that’s not the truth and this is not investigated and this is not compared. And how one can say that since there was no investigation there is any comparison?
Snow: And your position then on the view that Lawrence Eagleburger testified to, that you should be included on a list of those who should be examined for war crimes at the end of all this?
Karadzic: This is quite private opinion of Mr. Eagleburger, who also should be trialed for what’s happened to Yugoslavia because he is responsible for what’s happened to Yugoslavia. But all of my activities (are) quite public and if you knew our generals how they are very strong about morality you would never say that it was with knowledge of army officers or civilian authorities.
