Among the many alleged war crimes of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who refused to enter a plea when he appeared in court at The Hague this week, none received more attention during the Bosnian war than the targeting of civilians during the long siege of Sarajevo. In retrospect, the siege can also be viewed as an extreme case of organized crime. Karadzic acted like a predatory mafia boss, profiting from the misery of the population and collecting payoffs, in the form of skimmed humanitarian aid, in return for granting the United Nations access to the besieged city. The United Nations and major Western powers acquiesced in this extortionist scheme, largely tolerating the siege even as they condemned it. ...
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