This week in history: May 3-9
2 May 2021
Radovan Karadzic
On May 7, 1996, the first in a series of war crimes trials stemming from the war in Bosnia opened in the international court at The Hague, Netherlands. Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb, stood accused of carrying out atrocities against Bosnian civilians, including murder, rape and torture.
The opening of the trial, however, centered on a dispute over the nature of the Bosnian conflict. The prosecution attempted to base itself on war crimes laws relating to international conflicts and therefore sought to present the war in Bosnia as an attack by the Serbian state on the state of Bosnia. Defense attorneys countered that Yugoslavia’s breakup and the attempt by large Serb minorities in Croatia and Bosnia to maintain their ties to Belgrade precluded any such definition.