Local family says former Serbian leader should spend next '100 years in prison'
Published Wednesday July 23rd, 2008
Suvad and Kelima Kukavica feel they can finally move past a troubling chapter in their lives after the capture Monday night of one of the world's most wanted war criminals.
The Fredericton residents, who were born and brought up in Bosnia, spent Tuesday quietly celebrating the arrest of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic on genocide charges.
He had been on the run for more than 12 years.
Kelima Kukavica, whose brother Rufad Zukic was killed when Serb forces entered her village of Sanski Most in 1992, said she hopes Karadzic's arrest will be a turning point for all Bosnians.
"Hopefully, we can live like we used to live before Karadzic and (former Serbian leader Slobodan) Milosevic and the rest of the gang did what they did to us," she said.
Karadzic, 63, who now sports a beard and glasses, is believed to be the brains behind mass killings in the country during the 1990s, including the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.
Kukavica, who lives on the city's north side with her husband and three sons, said she was stunned by the news of Karadzic's capture by Serb security forces.
"I was doing dishes and my husband was watching TV; we have Bosnian television. All I can hear him saying is, 'He's captured! He's captured!' I said 'Who's been captured?' He said 'Radovan Karadzic.'
"My heart was in my throat; I could not believe it. We watched the news for most of the night. Sarajevo was just going nuts. It's just great news."
Kukavica said she feels her brother is resting better today because of Karadzic's capture.
Suvad Kukavica, who spent five months in a Serbian concentration camp during the war, said he feels like he has been relieved of a tremendous internal burden.
"I hope everybody is feeling better; it doesn't matter what allegiance you are in Bosnia," he said.
Suvad Kukavica said he believes Karadzic was responsible for thousands of people being killed in the Bosnian war.
"I am damaged emotionally by the war, but no one understands unless they were there," he said.
"I survived but in my place (village) they killed 300 of my friends."
Suvad Kukavica, who left the region in 1992 with his wife and young son, said he recalls watching Karadzic on Serbian television during the early part of the war. He said he will always remember him saying there was going to be "a bloody river and ethnic cleansing."
"He said one religion will be gone - meaning the Muslim people," he said. "That's what he did. They killed 250,000 people in four years in Bosnia-Herzegovina."
He said his time as a civilian prisoner in 1992 was horrific.
"Only I know what it was like," he said. "For the first 30 days, I didn't have any food. I am 230 pounds, my normal weight, and in August 1992, I was 110."
He said he believes it was Karadzic who ordered that he and other Muslims be put in a concentration camp, located close to Serb-controlled Banja Luka.
"We lived in a cow barn. They would come every night, beat you up, take you out and then you would be gone. You would hear the noise as they were killed with knives or shot with a gun."
Of the 2,000 in the camp, at least half were killed as a result of physical or emotional abuse, Suvad Kukavica said.
He said he hopes Karadzic never comes out of prison alive because he deserves more than 100 years behind bars.
Efforts are underway to transfer Karadzic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague to stand trial.
Karadzic's wartime ally, Gen. Ratko Mladic, is also being sought.
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