Karadžić request could prove “troublesome for Germany”

The document that the Hague Tribunal is asking for from Germany in the trial of Radovan Karadzic could cause problems for Berlin, say reports. Deutsche Welle reports that the German government believes the request could endanger its national and security interests and will appeal the decision. Karadzic request could prove “troublesome for Germany” Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who was the telecommunications minister in 1995, as the Bosnian 1992-95 war was coming to an end, said that it was “possible that the documentation has compromising information, for example, information that France or Great Britain smuggled weapons into Bosnia-Herzegovina.” “If the German documentation contains this information, this would be a great embarrassment for our NATO allies,” Schwarz-Schilling said, who said that the former Bosnian Serb political leader, undergoing war crimes trial at the Hague, was “throwing such information into the case in order to move attention away from the real facts”. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the 6,000 Srebrenica survivors in the process against the United Nations, Axel Hagedorn, said that the appeal of the German government will serve Karadzic in “proving his strategy thus far” – that the Tribunal is not conducting an honest process and that it does not wish to investigate the real truth, Deutsche Welle reports. International Law Professor Christian Tomuschat said that Karadzic’s defenders were doing everything to slow down the process and that the Hague Tribunal has the right to demand all documentation that has direct ties to the process, but that it it had not been tasked with “writing the history of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia”. “It cannot be ruled out that Karadzic found documents that prove certain arms shipments. For that reason he is now trying to prove that Western countries had taken an active part in the Bosnian war,” this expert said. Karadzic and his defense team are asking the government in Berlin to hand over eight categories of documents: reports, memorandums, correspondence and reports of the German intelligence service related to arms shipments to Bosnia, and above all to Srebrenica, in 1995. “In the earlier process led against Slobodan Milosevic, the defense attorneys had a similar strategy. They demanded various documentation from the Germany government, and the former foreign minister and prime minister had to personally testify as well. In that way, they want to gain time and to show the general explanation of historical trends, which did not have much to do with the case for which the process was being led,” Tomuschat said.

Karadžić request could prove “troublesome for Germany”

Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who was the telecommunications minister in 1995, as the Bosnian 1992-95 war was coming to an end, said that it was “possible that the documentation has compromising information, for example, information that France or Great Britain smuggled weapons into Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

“If the German documentation contains this information, this would be a great embarrassment for our NATO allies,” Schwarz-Schilling said, who said that the former Bosnian Serb political leader, undergoing war crimes trial at the Hague, was “throwing such information into the case in order to move attention away from the real facts”.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for the 6,000 Srebrenica survivors in the process against the United Nations, Axel Hagedorn, said that the appeal of the German government will serve Karadžić in “proving his strategy thus far” – that the Tribunal is not conducting an honest process and that it does not wish to investigate the real truth, Deutsche Welle reports.

International Law Professor Christian Tomuschat said that Karadžić’s defenders were doing everything to slow down the process and that the Hague Tribunal has the right to demand all documentation that has direct ties to the process, but that it it had not been tasked with “writing the history of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia”.

“It cannot be ruled out that Karadžić found documents that prove certain arms shipments. For that reason he is now trying to prove that Western countries had taken an active part in the Bosnian war,” this expert said.

Karadžić and his defense team are asking the government in Berlin to hand over eight categories of documents: reports, memorandums, correspondence and reports of the German intelligence service related to arms shipments to Bosnia, and above all to Srebrenica, in 1995.

“In the earlier process led against Slobodan Milošević, the defense attorneys had a similar strategy. They demanded various documentation from the Germany government, and the former foreign minister and prime minister had to personally testify as well. In that way, they want to gain time and to show the general explanation of historical trends, which did not have much to do with the case for which the process was being led,” Tomuschat said.