By Michael Karadjis

August 2, 2008 -- The Serbian government last month cornered Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serb Republic during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Since being indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague for war crimes including genocide, Karadzic had been hiding until his July 21 arrest. His arrest has been followed by a wave of hypocrisy throughout the West, which rushed to congratulate Serbia on the arrest. Yet in Afghanistan and Iraq, upwards of a million people have been killed as a result of the US invasions of these countries, which are being obliterated.

Daily crimes are committed against the Palestinian people by a country in violation of international law while receiving massive military aid from the US. While these phenomenal crimes go unpunished, the leading war criminals responsible for them believe they have the right to designate who should or should not be punished.

Such naked hypocrisy can never lead to true justice, or even a feeling of justice among the world’s oppressed. However, it is a mistake to jump from this observation to any defence of Karadzic.

By Michael Karadjis

I feel forced to write to correct some confusion that has been circulating regarding the current US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, who has been supporting the so-called ``autonomy'' referendum by the Bolivian oligarchy.

A continuous line has come out that Goldberg ``has experience in partition'' because he allegedly participated in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia. This tends to be a secondary point alongside a more general point that erroneously compares actual oppressed nations, such as the Kosovar Albanians, the poorest people in Europe, who have striven for independence for over a century, with the rich oligarchy of low-lands Bolivia, engaged in an imperialist-backed destabilisation of the Bolivian revolution.

Along with Kosova, some also list Tibet and other examples of so-called ``secessionism'' as being related to the Bolivian oligarchy's campaign. One feels compelled to add Palestine, Eritrea, Bangladesh, East Timor, Aceh, Tamil Ealam and other national liberation struggles by oppressed peoples just to make it consistent.