The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reinstated a genocide charge against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Thursday, reversing a trial court's ruling that prosecutors had not made a convincing case that he "possessed genocidal intent."The decision by a five-judge appeals panel coincided with a ceremony in Srebrenica, where the recently identified remains of 409 victims were reburied. Karadzic and Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic face charges in their concurrent war crimes trials for their alleged roles in orchestrating the slaughter on July 11, 1995.
In the appeals panel's ruling posted on the tribunal's website, the appellate judges cited evidence presented by the prosecution last year that Karadzic took part in meetings where "it had been decided that one-third of Muslims would be killed, one third would be converted to the Orthodox religion and a third will leave on their own," purging the proclaimed state of Republika Srpska of all Muslims.
Karadzic was also involved in subjecting Muslim captives to inhumane and physically destructive conditions, packing hundreds in single rooms, denying them food and water and depriving them of toilets or bathing facilities, causing the spread of disease and death, the appellate judges noted.