By Kristy McDonald
WAR criminal Radovan Karadzic’s arrest last week may have ended one chapter in Europe’s history, but for one local man the book will never close.
While many across the world have openly rejoiced over the Bosnian Serb leader’s arrest, 20-year-old Ahmedin Suljic is more reserved.
Ahmedin was just three when his mother, pregnant with his sister, left to make a new life in Slovenia. Their father became one of 8000 Muslim men and boys massacred in Srebrenica in 1995.
“It’s a relief because you found the people involved, but people, society, everyone in the world knew about it and nobody did anything about it,” Ahmedin said.
“Thirteen years down the track, they find a guy whose life is over and you’ve got the kids, who lost their dads and their mums and their life is starting.
“It was a relief but for me, the damage has been done and it doesn’t change that.
“And it doesn’t matter if you find the criminals, because the next day, some other criminal is going to be born and he is going to make a war.
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“For me it wasn’t really much of a victory, you can’t change it, nothing’s going to bring my dad back.”
For 13 years, Karadzic was one of the world’s most wanted war criminals for his alleged part in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 and for the siege of Sarajevo.
He was arrested last week in a Belgrade suburb, where he had been masquerading as an alternative medicine practitioner.
One Serb news agency reported that Karadzic was carrying false papers printed on official documents, similar to those found on war crimes suspect Stojan Zupljanin when he was arrested in June.
Like many others at the time, Ahmedin’s father took comfort in the presence of UN officials and armed forces from other countries in their homeland.
This comfort would eventually be his downfall.
“I think at the start everyone could have got out, but nobody believed there was going to be a war,” Ahmedin said.
“When the time came, there was no room left on the buses, only for the old people, for the ladies and the children.
“Once my sister was born in Slovenia, (my father) tried to come over there, but they turned him back, so he went back to Bosnia.
“He gave my mum a phone call and told her that he was not accepted in Slovenia.
“He went back, they wanted to go through the (Bosnian safe side), they were going to the forest trying to escape and the Serbian army captured them and executed them there.”
The body of Ahmedin’s father has never been found, but the mass graves in the forest outside Srebrenica confirm the slaughter that took place there.
“They dig the mass graves there, some of the bodies were found,” Ahmedin said.
“When we came back to Germany, we heard the news that certain bones had been found, of people that were with my father when he tried to escape.”
Along with his father, more than 90 per cent of Ahmedin’s extended family were killed in the Bosnian genocide.
He said that while Karadzic’s atrocities were devastating, they also marked the resilience of the Bosnian people.
“I don’t want to forget because that’s part of where I’m from and if you forget where you’re from, you’ve got nothing left at the end of the day,” he said.
“Look at the Jews, they never forget about what happened to them – they are strong, they are proud, they are educated and they are successful.
“They talk about (Hitler’s rule), so why shouldn’t I talk about it; I’m proud to be Bosnian.”
At the weekend, Karadzic’s lawyers filed an appeal against his transfer to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Karadzic has allegedly told his lawyer he is going to make the justice process as difficult as possible for his accusers.
