Belgrade braced yesterday for an ultra-nationalist protest rally in defiance of Radovan Karadzic’s arrest and impending transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The rally in the Serbian capital, where Karadzic is being detained in prison, has been organized by the hardline Radical Party and backed by the party former nationalist prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, both sidelined after May 11 polls.
The Radicals hope “tens of thousands” of Karadzic loyalists from across the country would attend the protest, which came a week after the wartime Bosnian Serb leader was captured in disguise as an alternative medicine guru.
A firebrand leader of the ultra-nationalist party, Aleksandar Vucic, said the demonstration was against Serbia’s pro-Western President Boris Tadic for ordering Karadzic’s arrest.
“The protest is against the treacherous and dictatorial regime” of Tadic, he told journalists ahead of the demonstration, the first major show of force against Karadzic’s arrest.
The demonstration was expected to be the biggest in Belgrade since February, when 150,000 protested Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in a rally that sparked attacks on Western embassies, wild rioting and looting.
It was scheduled to start at 7pm in Belgrade’s main Republic Square, which is much smaller than the area where the Kosovo rally was staged in front of the old Yugoslav parliament building.
Vucic had called for a peaceful march through Belgrade’s central streets to show the “unity of all the free people of Serbia,” while Karadzic’s brother Luka had promised a “Gandhi-like” protest.
Karadzic is fighting his transfer to The Hague, where he stands accused of playing a leading role in the siege of Sarajevo and Srebrenica massacre of Muslim males, the bloodiest single atrocity in Europe since World War II.
But his lawyer Svetozar Vujacic openly admits the appeal, posted by regular mail at the latest possible moment before the weekend, is a tactic designed to delay his transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
And the appeal was still in the post yesterday, said Ivana Ramic, the spokeswoman for its intended recipients at Serbia’s special war crimes court.
Once the appeal is received, a three-judge panel of the court has three days to decide on its merits before the justice ministry must issue a final order for the transfer.
Despite some reports to the contrary, Serbia is unlikely to order the transfer of Karadzic until after the protest in order to avoid the risk of it getting out of hand like the Kosovo rally.
Riot police will turn out in force to avoid a repeat of that, or any attacks on journalists like those that have marred smaller daily protests that have been staged in support of Karadzic since his capture.
Karadzic, 63, was arrested on July 21 while riding a suburban bus through Belgrade, after more than a decade on the run disguised as a specialist in “human quantum energy.”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS