Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) condemns International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) decision to give extra time to war crimes criminal Radovan Karadzic to prepare for defense

The Congress of North American Bosniaks, an umbrella organization representing 350,000 American and Canadian Bosniaks, strongly condemns the decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’s (ICTY) decision to give extra time to proven war crimes criminal Radovan Karadzic to prepare for defense.

He has been in hiding for 14 years preparing himself for his inevitable day in court. The victims’ right to swift justice and the need to close this dark chapter of history outweighs the desire of the accused to prepare his defense. Moreover, it is the accused who elected to represent himself, in spite of the fact that he is not qualified to do so. The ICTY need not make allowances for his continued bad choices. The families of 300,000 Bosniaks, who were killed, wounded, and missing and over 1 million Bosniaks expelled from their homes have waited 14 years for justice while Karadzic was hiding in Serbia. Mr. Karadzic willfully hid from law for 14 years to escape justice. With this extension, ICTY is playing with the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its future, chance for reconciliation, and most importantly justice for victims and their families.

This is another shameful decision of the ICTY, after many previous ones, including: allowing war criminals Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj to make mockery of the Court, releasing Biljana Plavsic from jail ahead of time, punishing Florence Hartman for telling the truth about the secret agreements between the ICTY and Serbia and Montenegro. There will be no justice in the world while war criminals and those who destroyed lives are allowed to make mockery of the international court system.

On behalf of the CNAB

Semir Đulić
Spokesperson of the CNAB