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	Radovan Karadzic trial for multiple war crimes, genocide recommences by ICTY & news agencies International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The Hague   March 3, 2010   Spanish police have arrested the suspected war criminal Batko Vlahovic. He is accused of murdering hundreds of Bosnian Muslims while commanding Serb forces during the Bosnian war in the 1990s. Bosnia says it will ask Spain to extradite him so he can face charges of genocide.   Meanwhile, Radovan Karadzic has taken the stand for a second day at his war crimes trial.   26 October 2009   Radovan Karadzic Trial Begins. (ICTY News)   Radovan Karadzic is the former President of Republika Srpska, head of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), is one of the highest ranking officials to be indicted by the Tribunal.   He is charged with two counts of genocide and a multitude of other crimes committed against Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war.   The indictment alleges that Karadzic committed genocide when forces under his command killed non-Serbs during and after attacks on towns in more than a dozen Bosnian municipalities in the early stages of the war. After these attacks, Bosnian Serb forces rounded up tens of thousands of non-Serbs and transferred them to more than 20 detention facilities. The indictment alleges that forces under Karadzic’s command tortured, mistreated, sexually assaulted and killed non-Serbs in these camps.   Karadzic also stands accused of genocide for the murder of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment states that on 8 March 1995, Karadzic instructed Bosnian Serb forces under his command to create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival for the inhabitants of Srebrenica, amongst other places.   The indictment also charges Karadzic with responsibility for a protracted campaign of shelling and sniping of civilian areas of Sarajevo, killing and wounding thousands of civilians, including children and the elderly during the 44-month siege of the capital city.   The Prosecution alleges that Karadzic committed all of these crimes together with other members of a joint criminal enterprise with the aim to permanently remove Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat inhabitants from the territories claimed to be a part of the so-called Serbian Republic.   Among other members of this criminal enterprise were Momcilo Krajisnik, Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic, Biljana Plavsic, Nikola Koljevic, Mico Stanisic, Momcilo Mandic, Jovica Stanisic, Franko Simatovic, Zeljko Raznatovic aka “Arkan” and Vojislav Seselj.   Karadzic’s initial indictment was confirmed on 25 July 1995. He was arrested on 21 July 2008 in Serbia and transferred to the Tribunal, after more than 13 years on the run.   Since its inception 16 years ago, the Tribunal has indicted 161 persons for war crimes committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The proceedings against 120 individuals have been completed.   Proceedings are currently open for 41 accused with 24 at trial stage, seven awaiting trial judgement and 14 before the Appeals chamber. Two accused, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, are at large awaiting arrest and transfer to The Hague for trial.   * The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a United Nations court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s. The Tribunal’s courtrooms have heard hundreds of victims tell their tragic stories about what they saw and experienced.   People of all walks of life -farmers, doctors, housewives, local politicians, mechanics, students, school children and many others- were victims of horrific crimes. Many of them were victims simply because they were of a different ethnicity from their attackers.   Many victims who testified before the Tribunal courageously related how they were either beaten, tortured, raped, sexually assaulted, forced from their homes, watched how their family members were murdered, or how they saw others fall victim to these terrible crimes. At the link below you will find some of their stories. Visit the related web page
	Transplant tourism cause for ongoing concern by News agencies   March 2010   Moves to combat "transplant tourism", in which patients from rich countries pay large sums to have organ transplants in poor ones, are gaining pace, experts told an international conference.   The World Health Organisation and the European Union have led the way in tackling the problem, the Madrid conference on organ donations and transplants heard last week.   "Stopping the illegal trafficking of organs and ending transplant tourism is an objective shared by all countries," Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said.   "The European Union has a harmonised model in which no one puts a price on an organ, and the WHO is making a great effort to spread this model," she added.   Rafael Matesanz, the head of the Spain"s national transplant organisation, said efforts to curb transplant tourism "began in 2005 with the very decisive action of the World Health Organisation and the international Transplantation Society to establish laws in the countries where it does not exist."   Dr Luc Noel, a coordinator of the WTO on the subject, said a "common front" was now emerging in the battle against the practice.   He noted that laws against the trafficking of organs had been adopted in five countries considered among the worst offenders: China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt and Colombia.   In all these countries, many poor people sell their livers or kidneys to patients in rich countries in need of them.   Noel said that although organ transplant tourism continued in China, legislation passed there in 2007 had already led to the arrest of a gang of traffickers.   China"s deputy health minister Dr Huang Jiefu attended the Madrid conference to emphasise his country"s efforts in this regard.   "Since the beginning of this century, organ transplantation has become a booming health industry" in a country where "over 90 per cent of the organs still come from executed prisoners", he said.   "The trading of human organs emerged in China in an under-regulated environment, forming a tremendous profit chain that is against the principles of equality and the goal of building harmonious society in China."   The Spanish newspaper El Pais recently reported the case of a Spaniard, Oscar Garay, who paid 135,000 euros ($A198,000) to receive a new liver in a hospital in the Chinese city of Tianjin in 2008.   Huang Jiefu admitted that since the 2007 law, "we still have some hospitals trading with illegal organ agencies and... selling organs to foreigners for profit". But he noted that seven hospitals had had their licences withdrawn for carrying out transplants.   The head of the Transplantation Society, Professor Jeremy Chapman, said "China is working hard to stop the trade" in organs.   But he said such work must go hand in hand with efforts in the countries of origin of the "tourists".   "To stop the trade you must stop the need. There are some very successful examples where patients used to leave the country and now they hardly do it at all. I would pick Saudi Arabia as a success story," he said.   New Delhi. March 2, 2010   Dr Horror made rich on human body parts.   Australians have been involved in an investigation of an Indian medic known as "Dr Horror" who is accused of running illegal clinics that duped poor labourers into selling their kidneys and then peddled them to wealthy clients.   Legal sources involved in the case say Australians are among hundreds of foreigners who paid Amit Kumar for organ transplants.   The charge sheet against Kumar, prepared by India"s Central Bureau of Investigation, says he received payment from foreign kidney recipients in foreign bank accounts.   When police raided a property used as a clinic by Kumar in Gurgaon, a wealthy satellite town of Delhi, in January 2008, they found five "donors", three of whom had recently had their kidneys removed and needed to be taken to hospital.   Also detained at a nearby guesthouse were five foreign clients; three were Greek, while two were Americans of Indian descent. Britons, Turks and Saudis are among the other nationalities confirmed to be paying clients.   Court papers allege that middlemen linked to Kumar attracted destitute labourers with promises of jobs that came with board and lodging, but then offered cash for their kidneys when they arrived at properties he controlled.   Many who refused claim they were drugged and had their organ removed without consent, while others have alleged they were threatened at gunpoint.   Police say 400 to 500 kidney transplants were performed by the syndicate over a nine-year period.
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