RADOVAN KARADZIC TRIAL MAY START ON OCT. 19

PHOTO: Mass murderer and the architect of the Srebrenica genocide, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

The trial of Radovan Karadzic may begin on 15 October, according to Judge O-Gon Kwon. "We shall render a final decision concerning the precise date at a later stage. We have decided to hold a pre-trial conference on October 6."

The Judges forced prosecutors to reduce the time and number of witnesses needed to prove the allegations in the indictment against Karadzic. In the worst case scenario, the trial could last three years.

"Further reductions are warranted ... for a fair and expeditious trial," said the judge. Karadzic could still be prosecuted later for incidents being removed from the indictment in the interests of ensuring that "justice is done fairly and in an expeditious manner", the judge added.

However, the Markale shelling in Sarajevo will not be trimmed from the indictment and it will be presented in a case against Radovan Karadzic, due to the "existence of controversial opinions on which party was responsible for the shelling." There is really no controversy over Markale shellings: in a case of two Serb Generals - Stanislav Galic and Dragomir Milosevic - it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Serb side was fully responsible for both Markale massacres (see here and here). Also, the 1999 United Nations report on the Fall of Srebrenica confirmed that the Serb side was responsible for the Markale marketplace shelling (see here). Is Radovan Karadzic trying to retry other cases to rewrite the history? Possibly, but he will fail miserably. Adjudicated facts won't change. There is too much evidence in support of the Serb guilt for both Markale massacres, which is evident from the judgments rendered against Gen. Stanislav Galic and Gen. Dragomir Milosevic.

Judge Kwon said that:

"The Prosecution will reduce the time for examination of witnesses from 490 to 293 hours, by designating some witnesses as reserve ones and changing the status and time needed for the examination of some witnesses. The Chamber considers that the Prosecution should complete its evidence presentation within one year. The Defence is given the same amount of time. The whole case should be completed within the next 30 months. It must not be extended, even in the worst case scenario, beyond three years."

Karadzic faces 11 war crimes charges related to his role in the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 12,000 people dead, and the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide - which left at least 8,372 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica dead and around 30,000 homeless in a mass-scale ethnic cleansing campaign.

In the meantime, Momcilo Krajisnik, one of the highest ranking war-time members of the Bosnian Serb leadership, was transferred yesterday to the United Kingdom to serve his 20-year sentence for crimes committed against non-Serb civilians during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Trial Chamber’s earlier convictions of murder, extermination and persecution – with exception of deportation and forcible transfer – were quashed by the Appeal Chamber judgement, so he will only serve 20 years in prison.

SREBRENICA 1992-1995: From 1992-1995 Serbs from heavily militarized villages around Srebrenica had forced approximately 40,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to live in the Srebrenica ghetto with little or no means of survival. Furthermore, Serbs around Srebrenica had terrorized Srebrenica population by constantly attacking neighbouring Bosnian Muslim villages. In July 1995 the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of Srebrenica and its surrounding area, where they proceeded to perpetrate genocide. Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Bosniak families, forcibly expelled 25,000-30,000 Bosniaks, and summarily executed at least 8,372 Bosnian Muslims - boys, men, and elderly.