In the 3rd of our series on Parkhurst prisoners,Island Echoexamines the case of Radovan Karadžić, the Butcher of Bosnia, who is currently incarcerated at HMP Isle of Wight.

Genocide was never supposed to happen again. When the Allied soldiers discovered the Nazi Death Camps in Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen, the main perpetrators were hung. Surely, no one would surely attempt mass murder in ‘civilized’ Europe after the terrible and tragic events of the Holocaust.

But 27 years ago in Srebrenica, Bosnia, it did happen. The person held primarily responsible for the massacre of over 8,000 victims was Radovan Karadžić, leader of the Bosnian Serbs.

Radovan Karadžić was born on 19th June 1945. He trained as a psychiatrist, then co-founded the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia. When Bosnia voted to become independent of Yugoslavia, he became the first president of the breakaway Republic Srpska.

The Bosnian Serbs never wanted to become citizens of Bosnia and fought a bloody civil war against Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks to remain part of Greater Serbia. It was in this context that the genocide in Srebrenica occurred.

Srebrenica was a Bosniak enclave in Bosnian Serb territory. It had been declared a ‘safe haven’ for the Bosniaks by the United Nations. It was defended by 600 Dutch troops. But the Dutch completely failed to keep those they were supposed to protect safe.

In July 1995, Radovan Karadžić ordered his troops to liquidate the town. The Dutch, who were lightly armed and heavily outnumbered, offered no resistance.

Karadžić’s forces then massacred every man of military age in Srebrenica in what appears to have been premeditated genocide. But they did not spare the women and children.

A Bosniak woman, Zumra Šehomerovic, claimed:

“The Serbs began to take girls and young women out of the group of refugees. They were raped. The rapes often took place under the eyes of others and sometimes even under the eyes of the children of the mother.

“There was a woman with a small baby a few months old. A Chetnik (Bosnian Serb soldier) told the mother that the child must stop crying. When the child did not stop crying, he snatched the child away and cut its throat.

“Then he laughed. There was a Dutch soldier there who was watching. He did not react at all.”

In 2002, a Dutch inquiry into the Srebrenica massacre concluded that the Dutch mission was not well-considered and well-nigh impossible. The Dutch government accepted partial political responsibility for what happened and resigned.

After the Bosnian war, Radovan Karadžić became a fugitive from justice. He worked at a private clinic in Belgrade under an alias, specializing in alternative medicine and psychology.

He was arrested in Belgrade on 21st July 2008 and extradited to the Netherlands, where he was charged with 11 offences. On 24th March 2016, Karadžić was found guilty of the genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment.

In May 2021,it was announced that he would be transferred to a British prison HMP Isle of Wight, chosen because the prison’s population is predominantly sex offenders who have little political or religious interest and pose the least risk to him.

Karadžić objected to his transfer to the United Kingdom on safety grounds, citing the case of the former Serbian general Radislav Krstić, who had his throat cut by Islamic extremists at Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire.

For many Serbs, Karadžić is a hero rather than villain. He has had the support of their religious leaders, who described him as: “one of the most prominent sons of our Lord Jesus Christ working for peace”.

Some Serbs are not happy with the treatment Karadžić is receiving here. Over 120 Serb public figures have signed an open letter to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, criticising the British government for keeping the 77-year-old in substandard conditions.

The Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti said the Serb public figures urged Guterres to transfer Karadžić from HMP Isle of Wight to another prison because his rights are being ‘grossly violated’, his health could suffer and his life ‘will be endangered’. They claim that Karadžić isn’t able to meet his family or legal team, access a computer and is being kept in complete isolation and ‘exposed to psychological mistreatment’.

In response, the British embassy in Sarajevo has said:

“[Karadžić ] has no special or different treatment. His access to media is subject to scrutiny because such contact may cause serious additional harm to his victims.

“These controls are in line with the law and the policies of the Prison Service of the United Kingdom, which apply to all prisoners in the UK.”

Organisations representing victims and survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacres have said:

“Please don’t buy into the provocations from Serbia – we, the victims, are deeply convinced that Radovan Karadžić enjoys the highest level of rights allowed as a convicted international criminal in accordance with the laws of Great Britain.”