Paddy Ashdown forsøkte å oppnå noe i Bosnia igår. Han brukte sine vide fullmakter til å sparke 60 serbiske poliktikere fra Sprska, blant annet presidenten for nasjonalforsamlingen og innenriksministeren. Han vil bryte korrupsjonsringen som beskytter Radovan Karadzic.

Alle de politiske stattholderne har måttet gå av uten å se Karadzic i Haag. Ashdown vil gjøre et forsøk, men når neppe frem uten solid støtte i London og Washington, og de har hendene fulle for øyeblikket. Men Karadzic har vært på frifot i ti år. De har hatt god tid. Hvorfor er han ikke tatt?

Den amerikanske journalisten, Russ Baker, hadde en god artikkel i Washington Monthly da Saddam ble tatt i desember i fjor. Den fortsatt like aktuell.

What is most disturbing about Radovan Karadzic’s continued life on the lam is how well we understand its parameters. We know who supplies his funding and who coordinates his logistics. We know the region he is likely holed up in. We know the institutions (his party SDS and reactionary elements within Serbia) that provide him support, institutions which have sent initial signals that their support for Karadzic is beginning to wane. We even know, from the success of British troops and intelligence in bringing war criminals to justice, those methods of pursuit and bribery most likely to work in this part of Bosnia and Montenegro. Compared to Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, finding Karadzic seems, if not easy, a comparatively attainable goal.

If capturing Saddam was as important a milestone for Iraq’s future as the White House says it is, then what conceivable reason can there be for not putting some small fraction of that energy into getting Karadzic? Today, despite its professed commitment to tracking down dangerous tyrants and doing the right thing, the Bush administration parses the vague, malleable notion of «national security» to make one monster fair game, and another irrelevant. In the end, then, Radovan Karadzic, a war criminal of virtually unsurpassed atrociousness who continues to destabilize a volatile region, is allowed to roam free–not because we can’t get him but because we have chosen not to.

Catch Me if You Can
If snaring Saddam was so important, why is Radovan Karadzic allowed to re2_kommentar free?
By Russ Baker