Who is Radovan Karadzic?
Born: 1945, in Montenegro
Ethnicity: Bosnian Serb
Education: Sarajevo University of Medicine, Columbia University
Profession: Psychiatrist; First president of the Bosnian Serb government when Bosnia was recognized by the United Nations as an independent state in 1992.
Arrested: On a Belgrade bus in July 2008, posing as a bearded new age healer called “Dragan Dabic.”
Why is he in The Hague now? For charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Karadzic is accused of leading four years of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. He is allegedly co-responsible for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995 in Srebrenica. He boycotted the opening day of his trial yesterday, saying he has not had enough time to prepare. The prosecution has prepared nearly a million pages of evidence against him.
Surname pronunciation: CAR-ah-djits (Listen here.)
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While a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, reporter David Rohde – who recently wrote a five-part series for the New York Times on his seven-month captivity with the Taliban in Pakistan – was the first to publish evidence of mass graves in Srebrenica. Here is a selection of his reporting from the Monitor's archives:
Graves Found That Confirm Bosnia Massacre
Nov. 16, 1995
What the US Knows and Won't Reveal
Nov. 16, 1995
Bosnia Muslims Were Killed by The Truckload
Oct. 2, 1995
Eyewitnesses Confirm Massacres in Bosnia
Oct. 5, 1995
