BOSNIA: Former camp survivors remember being imprisoned at the orders of Radovan Karadzic

Record ID: 345143

  • Title: BOSNIA: Former camp survivors remember being imprisoned at the orders of Radovan Karadzic
  • Date: 31st July 2008
  • Summary: (W3) KOZARAC, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 30, 2008) (REUTERS) REBUILT MOSQUE IN KOZARAC OLD TURKISH CEMETERY IN TOWN TRAFFIC IN STREET TWO MEN IN STREET WOMAN AND CHILD WALKING PEOPLE IN CAFE
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA78RSVQCMBY8IV6DHAWYUBN9L4
  • Story Text: Many people would not recognise Fikret Alic now. It has been almost sixteen years since pictures of him were broadcast while he was imprisoned in Trnopolje concentration camp in what is now known as Bosnia And Herzegovina.
    His skeletal body held behind a barbed wire fence showed the world the violence unleashed on Bosnia's Muslim civilians at the orders of Radovan Karadzic, the man who has been taken to The Hague to answer charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
    "I have been under psychological stress for five years, and I still have problems. For five months I was totally lost. I was speaking to a tree. But after a while I started coming back to life. I come here with no problems now. Everyone knows my address. But on a second thought, we paid a bigger price by not talking about it than if we had talked," Alic said in an interview.
    Alic now lives in Denmark but hopes to return to Bosnia And Herzegovina. He hopes the trial of Radovan Karadzic will reveal the truth.
    "In Radovan Karadzic's trial it will be revealed why it all started. Because if we all could live and can live together now, why couldn't we do it then," he said.
    Alic says he is still proud of his identity.
    "I still have a Bosnian passport only and I will keep Bosnian citizenship. My only wish is to continue my life here and build my future, and to educate my child here," he added.
    Like Alic, Serif Velic also suffered in a camp. He says memories are difficult to erase.
    "One Karadzic more or less, it means nothing to me because the seed of evil has been sown, and Karadzic's idea still lives here even today," said Velic and added, "How can I forgive someone something if he doesn't ask me for forgiveness."
    Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was taken to a prison cell in The Hague on Wednesday (July 30) to face trial at a U.N war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
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