After five years of legal fighting, the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague has convicted Radovan Karadžić of 10 of the 11 war crimes he was charged with. He got a 40 year sentence.
Wait. What? Forty years? For the massacre of somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 men and boys in his efforts to ethnically cleanse the Balkans? Sure, he'll die in prison. But even a token sentencing of 6,000 years of prison would feel more appropriate.
You won't find this on CNN today, or much of anywhere. The Guardian carried the article below, but it was one of the few outlets that did. The media has a short-term memory problem.
Today is hugely significant, as it took five years and the research of thousands and testimony of hundreds to both catch him and convict him. People who knew better than to forget the horrors he imposed on humankind kept the investigation moving forward.
The story of his manhunt is found in Julian Borger's new book, The Butcher's Trail: The Secret History of the Balkan Manhunt for Europe's Most-Wanted War Criminals. Borger works for the Guardian as well, and lends his gravitas to the novel-like story of the investigation of three of the worst war criminals in our time. Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic, and Karadzic all participated in the brutality unforgotten by citizens of the the region.
Milosevic's lawyer was quoted in the book, "I thought [to] myself that Milosevic, Karadzic, and Mladic should all have committed suicide. They would have gone into history. Thousands of people died for them, and if you are sending people's children to their death, you should know how to leave yourself" (Borger 223).
A startling fact was relayed in the foreword: "Two civilians were killed for every three soldiers who died in battle. The whole conflict was characterized by random brutality. Psychopaths were made masters of the life and death or their former neighbors" (Borger xxv).
From the Guardian, source beneath:----------------------------------
Number of dead or disappeared by ethnicity in the 1992-95 Bosnian war
This year's Eastern European Reading Challenge hasn't yet ended, but it's time to think of next year's reading challenge. I chose to go with the Mediterranean region because not only is it topical, it's also an area where translated works are flourishing. And it's supposed to be healthier too!
The 2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge!
So, start planning what level you'd like to try for if you decide to enter. The last two years of reading challenges had over 70 people from more than 20 countries participating.
2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge Map
The following countries are included: Algeria, Albania, Tunisia, Spain, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Monaco, Slovenia, Crete, Cyprus, and Malta.
Need ideas to start? You can explore at Archipelago Books (archipelagobooks.org), Peirene Press (www.peirenepress.com) or Open Letter (openletterbooks.org) to find translated fiction and poetry, as they are the preeminent publishers of translated works.
Levels:
3-Tourist
6-Explorer
9-Scholar
To enter, leave a comment on this post with your name and home country and reading goal. Another post will be created for you to leave links to your reviews or to post titles you may want to share. To keep things relevant, I'll add occasional news topic posts to the blog that deal with this region and may be of interest to participants. You'll soon find a tab on the home page that will control information for the Mediterranean challenge details. If I'm really ambitious, I may throw in a recipe or two.
Additionally, the Eastern European Reading Challenge is going to continue...there's been enough interest to keep that in play for the next year. You'll find a new post that allows you to enter if you haven't already.
According to the World Atlas site, the Mediterranean "is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa. This 969,100 sq. mile body of water is approximately 2,300 miles in length, and has a maximum depth of 16,896 ft. Major subdivisions include the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Balearic Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and Ligurian Sea."
For purposes of Spain, the Catalonian region is included. Extra points if you can find works from the islands of Cyprus, Sardinia, Malta, or Sicily!
Please join this year's challenge and see if we can discover new regions and cultures, while helping support the efforts of small presses and translators to make global literature accessible to all.
