Busted: Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is being tried on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, during which 150,000 to 200,000 people, mostly Muslims, died. He is accused of ethnic cleansing in eastern Bosnia, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes; a 44-month siege of the capital, Sarajevo, which left 10,000 dead; a massacre at Srebrenica, where about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed; and the hostage-taking of 200 U.N. peacekeepers. Even as the trial proceeds, Bosnians and others in the region continue to struggle with his legacy. Above, a woman walks past a fallen bust of Karadzic in Belgrade on Oct. 26.
Having his day in court: Karadzic is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in The Hague. Karadzic is representing himself, but boycotted the trial's start last month, arguing he needed more time to prepare a defense. Countering that 14 months of custody, not to mention the 14 years since the 1995 indictment, is more than enough, the court appointed a defense lawyer for when Karadzic decides to skip the proceedings. The trial has been postponed until March to allow the lawyer time to prepare. Above, Karadzic is pictured in the ICTY courtroom on Nov. 3.
Bosnia continues to face ghosts and scars from the past. Above, a forensic team examines a mass grave site in Koricanske Stijene, near Travnik, on July 23. They are preparing to lower themselves into an abyss, in search of the remains of about 200 Bosnian Muslim and Croat civilians massacred in 1992. The victims were held in a detention camp and were told they would be part of a prisoner exchange. Instead, "The civilians were ordered to kneel by the edge of a road turned towards the ravine and then were shot with automatic weapons," reads the indictment of two police officers accused of participating.
Still in fashion: The fragility of the 1995 Dayton Accords -- which negotiated peace between Bosnia's ethnic groups by subdividing the country into a Croat-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) federation and a Serb republic -- shows on the streets. Extremist memorabilia is common in Serb areas of Bosnia and Serbia. Above on Oct. 14 in Banja Luka, a vendor displays a T-shirt supporting Karadzic and his right-hand man Ratko Mladic, who is still missing. The shirt reads "Serb Heroes" across the top and asks at the bottom, "Is It a Crime to Defend Serb People?"
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Fleeing after the war ended, Karadzic assumed a new identity, that of New Age faith healer "Dragan Dabic." He was found last year in Belgrade, hiding behind a bushy beard, ponytail, and thick glasses. Above, he is pictured in disguise, alongside "bioenergy expert" Mina Minic. After his capture, Austrian papers reported he had also practiced alternative medicine in Vienna.
Duck and cover: After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Yugoslavia began to unravel. A majority of Bosnians (Croats and Muslims) voted for independence in a 1992 referendum boycotted by Bosnian Serbs. In April of that year, Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian-Serbian party, severed ties from Bosnia and allied himself with Serbia, immediately launching a siege of Sarajevo. Above, civilians huddle for protection as a Bosnian soldier returns Serb sniper fire on April 6, 1992. In May of that year Karadzic became president of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and allied himself with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Skin and bones: Photos from notorious Serbian prison camps, where Muslims were held, supposedly under investigation as fighters, shocked the world in 1992. Images of emaciated prisoners behind barbed wire conjured up memories of the Holocaust, along with horrifying stories of death and abuse. Above, prisoners in Trnopolje are visited by the Red Cross and journalists on Aug. 13, 1992. A horrified Bernard Kouchner (co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières), then French humanitarian affairs minister, called the camps "hell on earth."
Fleeing: Muslim refugees leaving besieged Srebrenica for Tuzla wave from a U.N. convoy truck on March 31, 1993. In 1995 Srebrenica was the site of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II: In July of that year, Serbian forces overwhelmed Dutch forces protecting the U.N. safe zone harboring tens of thousands of refugees. Boys and men between the ages of 12 and 77 were separated for "interrogation for suspected war crimes." About 8,000 males were subsequently killed, while more than 23,000 women and children were deported.
The war in Bosnia eventually led to the death of an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people, most of them Muslim. The Dayton Accords, hammered out in November 1995 by U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, ended the fighting. Above, three Sarajevan girls run along "Sniper Avenue" in the capital on March 27, 1995.
Above, Karadzic waves on Feb. 4, 1993, as he arrives at the U.N. headquarters in New York with his wife Ljlijana. Some hope that Karadzic's trial will provide reconciliation in a deeply divided society, but as Timothy William Waters writes on ForeignPolicy.com, "So let his trial begin now, and let it end. But whatever happens to Karadzic, the dead will still be dead, the living unreconciled."
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