karadzic trial: acts 1 & 2

a woman protests karadzic's boycott of his trial on opening day

late on tuesday night, i returned back to brussels from my second trip to the hague to help cover the karadzic trial. after much anticipation by both the victims’ relatives, as well as the media, karadzic finally showed up in court on tuesday, november 3rd.

act 1: 

my first trip to the hague to cover the opening of the trial was far more busy and frantic than the most recent trip. it was also more emotional…

on monday, october 26th, the first day of the trial, bus loads of women from bosnia – many from srebrenica – arrived in front of the court house in droves, holding signs demanding justice and photos depicting their lost loved ones. while some of the women were visibly outraged at karadzic’s refusal to show up for his initial appearance in court, others were silent, and some cried.

the overarching feeling in the air was one of raw emotion. i think that feeling comes across in this short video i shot with my little digi. regardless of the language barrier, it wasn’t difficult to understand what the woman in the white headscarf was saying – and what she was seeking to gain at the court in the hague, so far from home.

the first week of the trial, although anticlimactic in a way, was definitely interesting, exciting, and exhausting all rolled into one. it was also a media circus. but, i managed to interview the court’s spokeswoman on the first day of the trial, which was included in one of ap’s video packages sent out to clients (it’s the first interview), which was pretty cool.

act 2:

the second part of the trial was cold and rainy, but all the waiting and documenting paid off in the end because the man himself finally showed up. and before he showed up, i spent a lot of time waiting around outside with one of the camera guys in order to get shots of his car arriving through the court’s gates.

we had the live camera with us, which meant that any pictures we recorded were going directly to the hq in london, which then distributes the footage to clients worldwide. while we were waiting, we spotted one of karadzic’s defense attorneys walking down the street, so we nabbed him and i did a live, 2-minute interview with him on the street, which gave me a rush in a nerdy journalistic way. definitely my top reporting moment while in europe thus far.

after karadzic finally arrived, i watched the court proceedings from our satellite dish truck and was appalled to hear karadzic tell the judges that his “fundamental rights ha[d] been violated” because the court wouldn’t cave in to his requests for more time to prepare. what about the fundamental rights of the 8,000 muslim men and boys who were murdered in srebrenica in july of 1995?

overall, karadzic probably only spoke for 5 minutes of a hearing that lasted approximately 1.5 hours. the prosecution filled up most of the hearing laying out their arguments as to why the trial should proceed as originally planned. the judges listened & will decide on how to proceed by the end of this week. the possible scenarios include: resuming the trial even if karadzic continues to boycott, imposing counsel on karadzic, or giving karadzic more time to prepare his defense (he’s asking for 10 months).

for visuals on the collective 4-day trial, check out my photo set, which is a chronological account of what i saw.

and for a more behind-the-scenes account, you can see the lovely people i worked with during my time in the hague.