Hadzic Arrest Ends Search for Fugitives
Hadzic Arrest Ends Search for Fugitives
Former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, detained this week in Serbia, was the last remaining Hague tribunal indictee to have evaded arrest.
IWPR international justice reporter Rachel Irwin examines the charges against him and explains the significance of his arrest.
Who is Goran Hadzic?
Hadzic, a 52-year-old Croatian Serb, held various political positions before and during the Croatian war, which was sparked by the country’s declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
He was apprehended in Serbia on July 20 after seven years on the run. According to media reports, he was living under an assumed name but did not resist arrest.
From June 1991 until the end of 1993, Hadzic was the highest civilian and political authority in the Serb-claimed regions of Croatia.
He first acted as president of the government of the self-declared Serbian Autonomous District of Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem, known as the SAO SBWS, and, beginning in February 1992, was president of the so-called Republic of the Serbian Krajina, RSK, which absorbed SAO SBWS territory.
What is Hadzic charged with?
Hadzic is charged with 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed against the Croat and non-Serb population, including persecutions, extermination, murder, imprisonment, torture, inhumane acts, cruel treatment, deportation, wanton destruction and plunder.
The indictment was originally filed in 2004 but judges confirmed an amended version shortly after his arrest.
In the amended document, Hadzic is charged not only with planning, ordering, instigating and/or aiding and abetting the alleged crimes, but also with command responsibility.
This means that even if he did not plan or order the crimes himself, he allegedly knew – or had reason to know – that the crimes would be or had been committed by his subordinates, and he failed to take “necessary and reasonable” measures to prevent the crimes or punish the perpetrators.
The amended indictment will now also include a previously uncharged crime – the killing of 17 people at the Velepromet facility in Vukovar.
It also clarifies the existing counts and adds some towns and villages to the charges of plunder and wanton destruction.
Hadzic is also alleged to have been part of a Joint Criminal Enterprise, JCE, with various other political and military officials – including ex-Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, current Hague defendant Vojislav Seselj, and paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, otherwise known as Arkan.
The alleged purpose of the JCE was the “permanent forcible removal of a majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia” in order to create a Serb-dominated state.
In its most basic form, a JCE involves more than one person and a common plan to commit a crime. For example, if a group of people get together to plan a crime, but only one person carries it out, each person who took part in the planning would be considered just as responsible as the person who “pulled the trigger”.
Hadzic is not charged with physically committing the alleged crimes, but rather, he is alleged to have contributed in various ways to their planning, organisation, and execution. In addition, some of the crimes “were the natural and foreseeable consequence of the execution of…the [JCE] and Goran Hadzic was aware that such crimes were the possible outcome” of it, states the indictment.
Hadzic also allegedly “participated in and contributed to the creation, organisation, financing and direction of” local Serb police and security forces “which were created and supported to assist in the execution of the joint criminal enterprise”.
He allegedly provided similar assistance to the local Serb Territorial Defence Forces, as well as paramilitary “volunteer” groups which participated in carrying out the alleged crimes.
The indictment cites numerous incidents of murder, torture, beatings and “prolonged imprisonment” of Croats and non-Serbs, as well as the deportation of “tens of thousands” from Serb-claimed territory.
The paramilitary leader Arkan – who led a paramilitary unit during the Croatian and Bosnian wars - is mentioned throughout the indictment. In numerous incidents, his men are said to have participated in murdering and torturing Croat civilians.
Arkan was gunned down in a Belgrade hotel in 2000 before he could face charges in The Hague.
Hadzic is also charged with the murder of 194 Croats who were captured after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991. The victims were removed from Vukovar hospital and taken to Ovcara farm, where they were beaten and subsequently killed by local Serb forces.
After the fall of Vukovar, Hadzic allegedly asked to “retain” non-Serbs who were suspected of participating in military operations, the indictment states.
After “a large number” were transferred to detention facilities in Dalj, the detainees were allegedly “interrogated, beaten and tortured” by local Serb forces, and “at least 35 were executed”, according to the indictment.
Why does his arrest matter?
Even though Hadzic is not considered a “big fish”, he was the very last fugitive sought by the tribunal and his arrest can be seen as a major victory for the court, an ad-hoc United Nations institution created in 1993 with no police force of its own.
Depending entirely on cooperation from the international community, the tribunal has indicted 161 people over the years, including ex- Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic (who died in 2006 before a verdict could be rendered), former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, and the recently arrested ex-Bosnian Serb army general Ratko Mladic, who had been a fugitive for 16 years.
Mladic’s May 26 arrest was also considered incredibly significant, but with the capture of Hadzic, the court can close its doors without the lingering sense that it failed to accomplish its entire mission or that one indictee would escape justice, possibly forever.
The arrest also shows the effectiveness of sustained diplomatic pressure. Over the years, the tribunal has used Serbia’s desire to join the European Union as leverage, since Serbia is required to fully cooperate with the court in order to advance in EU talks. Until this week, Serbia’s failure to arrest all remaining fugitives was effectively blocking this progress.
While EU officials have praised Hadzic’s arrest as an “important step”, observers say there might still be some obstacles to EU membership, such as Serbia’s stance on Kosovo, for example.
Still, for Serbia’s image, the arrest of the last remaining wartime fugitive is huge.
“This is a marker in Serbia’s progress towards losing its pariah state aura it has had since the Milosevic era,” Historian Robert Donia told IWPR shortly after Hadzic’s arrest.
While most experts agree that there is still much work to be done in Serbia when it comes to facing its wartime past, the arrest of the final two long sought after fugitives in the span of two months can be considered very hopeful progress.
What happens now?
Hadzic was extradited to The Hague on July 22 and will have his initial appearance on July 25. He will be asked to enter a plea, but according to court rules, he is not required to do so until 30 days after the initial appearance.
At a press conference, court registrar John Hocking described Hadzic as “extremely cooperative” and that he appeared to be in “in pretty good shape” upon his arrival in The Hague. He will, however, be examined by doctors in the United Nations Detention Unit.
