Good News
News that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested and will probably face War Crimes in The Hague is welcome.
During the 1990s I watched the war in the former Yugoslav republics from afar and thought it was a mess of factions and paid little attention to the issues behind the conflict. But two years ago I went to Bosnia and Herzegovina and saw things in a new light. What struck me the most was how any open space in Mostar had been converted into cemetaries - mostly filled with young, Muslim men.
And in Sarajevo, I was horrified at the displays in the City Museum at the ineffectiveness of the UN and the daily struggle for normality that the residents tried to keep. What got me the most was not the pictures of maimed and dead adults, but the drawings children made. One set of drawings were of foods that the children most wanted to eat when the siege was lifted - the children were so hungry some of them dreamed of eating salad.
The crimes that Radovan Karadzic perpetuated are beyond the wildest imagination of most New Zealanders - if the International Court of Justice completes their trial and finds the evidence is strong enough for conviction I hope he gets locked up for the rest of his life.
During the 1990s I watched the war in the former Yugoslav republics from afar and thought it was a mess of factions and paid little attention to the issues behind the conflict. But two years ago I went to Bosnia and Herzegovina and saw things in a new light. What struck me the most was how any open space in Mostar had been converted into cemetaries - mostly filled with young, Muslim men.
And in Sarajevo, I was horrified at the displays in the City Museum at the ineffectiveness of the UN and the daily struggle for normality that the residents tried to keep. What got me the most was not the pictures of maimed and dead adults, but the drawings children made. One set of drawings were of foods that the children most wanted to eat when the siege was lifted - the children were so hungry some of them dreamed of eating salad.
The crimes that Radovan Karadzic perpetuated are beyond the wildest imagination of most New Zealanders - if the International Court of Justice completes their trial and finds the evidence is strong enough for conviction I hope he gets locked up for the rest of his life.
posted by Michael at
8:50 PM
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