It took 13 years, but we welcome the news that the Serbian secret police have arrested Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who incited vicious racial hatred and orchestrated some of the worst horrors of the Bosnian war. We await his swift transfer to The Hague to stand trial for his many war crimes.
Serbia’s government is crediting sound detective work for the capture; officials said Mr. Karadzic had adopted a “convincing” false identity and was “freely walking” the streets of Belgrade.
A more likely explanation is that President Boris Tadic, and his pro-Western government, decided to improve Serbia’s chances of joining the European Union and finally ordered investigators to do their job.
Among his many crimes, Mr. Karadzic has been charged with genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the most horrifying episode of the war and an infamous reminder of what happens when the world fails to stand up to such monsters. Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered after Bosnian Serb forces seized the poorly defended United Nations “safe area.”
Mr. Karadzic’s capture, even 13 years later, should serve as a warning to other leaders who incite and abet genocide and believe they can rely on their neighbors’ complicity and the world’s inattention to escape justice.
In July , the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court charged Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, with genocide for his role in Darfur’s horrors. Mr. Bashir should pay particular attention. So should the United Nations Security Council, which once again is failing to halt the murder of thousands.
We hope that Serbia will produce another investigative breakthrough soon; Mr. Karadzic’s military commander, General Ratko Mladic, who led the assault on Srebrenica and the mass killings that followed, is still at large. Belgrade must also make its peace with Kosovo’s independence. Still, Mr. Tadic has shown real political courage. Europe can now urge him onward with improved trade relations.
The long siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica should never be forgotten. But it is in everyone’s interest for Serbia to end its long, self-inflicted isolation.