<http://vologda.kp.ru/daily/24136/355427/>
http://vologda.kp.ru/daily/24136/355427/
Radovan Karadzic to KP special correspondent: "God know we're right"
Fifteen years ago, ex-president of the Bosnian Serbs who will soon be handed
over to the Hague Tribunal gave an interview to KP about combat lines in
Sarajevo
Darya Aslamova — 26.07.2008
I got my first dictaphone ever from the leader of the Bosian Serbs, Radovan
Karadzic, who today is called a war criminal. It happened in Pala in a
suburb of Sarajevo in May 1993 in the heat of the Serbian-Bosnian war.
The story about the dictaphone is essentially an anecdote.
Late in the evening, I waited for an interview with Karadzic in his
reception room. I left for 5 minutes to have a smoke and when I got back I
saw someone had stolen the dictaphone that I had borrowed from a colleague
at a local radio station.
I raised an uproar and yelled: "There are 20 people here and someone still
managed to steal my dictaphone right in front of you! What kind of security
are you?"
I was so loud Karadzic came into the room to see what was going on. They
explained what had happened. He got angry and said: "Find the dictaphone!" I
offered to gather and search everyone present. The guards and Karadzic's son
personally frisked them all. But the dictaphone was nowhere to be found.
When I entered Karadzic's office at midnight he was extremely upset.
"Tea or coffee?" he asked.
"How could I drink tea at one in the morning!" I said. "Maybe something a
bit stronger?" He laughed and brought out a bottle of good French wine.
We drank and Karadzic handed me a small Japanese dictaphone: "I want to
forget this happened. Please accept this gift to remember me by."
"I can't," I said. "The missing dictaphone belonged to a correspondent at a
local radio station here."
The year 1993. KP special correspondent Darya Aslamova and Radovan Karadzic
before the battle for Sarajevo.
"I'll take care of everything," he said. "I'd like my dictaphone to stay
with you."
The next morning I headed to the Muslim section of Sarajevo in a UN vehicle
wearing a bulletproof vet and helmet. The Serbs had unmercifully finished
off the blockaded Sarajevo. They had an advantageous position. The city lies
in a valley surrounded by mountains. After chasing the Muslims into the
area, they set the defenseless city on fire from the mountains.
Karadzic's dictaphone traveled around the world with me for many years
before breaking during a war. The interview with Karadzic was never
published. (At the time, Russia was only interested in its own problems.)
Part of the interview is relative today when Karadzic is in prison:
KP: What mistakes did you make as president in your opinion?
Karadzic: A huge mistake was bad propaganda. The world is against us. Due to
our pride and desire not to humiliate ourselves, we have allowed the world
to view Serbs as the embodiment of evil. It's unjust.
Q: I think the famous Serbian stubbornness is at fault here.
A: Maybe. We're always inclined to hope everything will work itself out. I
like the anecdote about the English King Henry VIII who had 6 wives. He
ordered a courtier to be killed for some petty offense. But the unfortunate
individual fell on his knees and begged his master: "My ruler! If you leave
me alive I'll teach your horse to speak within one year." The king laughed
and ordered that he be taken to the stables. The courtier's friends asked
him in amazement: "How will you teach the horse to talk?" "Ehh, it's no big
deal," he said. "In one year the king could die, or I might die, or maybe
even the horse will start talking."
Q: You're a psychiatrist by profession. Does that help you in politics?
A: First and foremost, knowing all the laws of psychiatry helps me to keep
in good form. I'm tough physically and morally and ready to work 20 hours
per day. As a psychiatrist, I can say the rule that is applicable to
separate individuals — remain in solitude and you'll mature as a person — is
sweeping the entire nation. The nation's forced isolation will either break
it if it is spiritually weak, or raise it if it deserves it. Today the Serbs
are lonely, but this will give them spiritual maturity and wisdom. God knows
we're right.
After 15 years, I'm bitterly convinced what Karadzic feared has come true.
Isolation has broken the Serbs and pushed them to commit the irreparable —
betraying their own. The issue isn't whether "their own" are right or wrong.
That's the last thing to worry about. The problem is only the Serbs should
try their people. When a nation hands its heroes to outsiders for trial, it
ceases to become a nation and becomes a nationality — a sorrowful appendage
to the majority. On his personal site under the name Dr. Dragan Dabich,
Karadzic wrote his favorite Chinese aphorism: "He who betrays his own digs
two graves. One for himself."
