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establishment of rape camps, served with international support for a time as
the Srpska minister of justice; and Momcilo Krajisnik, who with interna -
tional backing, was elected as the Serbian representative on the Bosnian
presidency. Krajisnik was subsequently indicted for genocide against the
people of Bosnia. 124
The widespread presence of indictable war criminals in the RS and the failure
of international community to capture them, especially Karadzic gave the impression
to the RS authorities that they can obscure the implementation of Dayton without
punishment. 125 Therefore, the failure to arrest Karadzic and Mladic had been a strong
blow against the early implementation of the peace process. According to a Serbian
judge interviewed by the International Crises Group, “Karadzic and Mladic represent
the single knot holding together a twisted thread of collective and individual guilt
that must be united for Bosnia to begin the reconciliation process.” 126
The present situation to a certain extent demonstrates that ethnic cleansing in
Bosnia worked. Moreover, war criminals appear to enjoy respected status in RS,
control essential political and economic institutions and paralyze the fulfillment of
the Dayton conditions and reconciliation. The presence of indicted and indictable
war crimes also suppressed the necessary public debate concerning the acts of
Serbian forces during the conflict and impaired the efforts to promote
reconciliation. 127 For example, “when a newspaper editor, Zeljko Kopanja, ran a
series of editorials in Nezavisne Novine asking why individuals responsible for war
crimes in Koricani and Teslic had not been arrested and trailed by the Srpska
government, he became the victim of a car bomb which destroyed both his legs.” 128
In brief, the initial failure to arrest war criminals significantly undermined the
implementation of the Dayton Accords and set back the peace-building efforts.
However, gradual arrest and voluntary surrender of a number of indicted persons
124 Ibid., pp. 167-168.
125 ‘War Criminals in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska’, International Crisis Group, p. iii.
126 Ibid., p. 77.
127 Paul R. Williams, Michael P. Scharf, Peace with Justice? War Crimes and Accountability in the
Former Yugoslavia, p. 169.
128 Ibid., p. 169.
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