Issue 8, Winter 2011 G P N S T O R Y
Goran Hadzic, the last Serbian fugitive wanted by the United Nations' war crimes tribunal in the Hague was handed over by the Serbian authorities on July 22, 2011, ending a tense and drawn-out custody battle over Balkan war crimes suspects that began more than 16 years ago. Hadzic, 52, had been on the run for seven years, which his lawyers said he spent hiding in Serbia, and admitted that he had travelled to other countries, including Russia.
The New York Times reported, "He had used another name," and that "he had regular Serbian identity papers," said one of the lawyers, Radoslav Marenkovic.
Before his flight to the court in the Hague, Hadzic visited his ailing mother in the town of Novi Sad and stopped briefly at the tomb of his father in a nearby town. The charges he faces involve massacres that took place in Croatia in the early 1990's when Serbs seized almost one-third of Croatian territory known as Krajina and drove out the non-Serb population, torturing and killing many.
Source: Simons, Marlise (July 23-24, 2011). Serbian war crimes suspect is extradited to U.N. tribunal. New York Times Global Edition.
|