Karadzic guilty verdict: Bosniak and Serb reaction

Karadzic had denied the charges, blaming any atrocities on rogue individuals

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been convicted of genocide and war crimes in the Bosnian war, and sentenced to 40 years in jail by UN judges in The Hague.

Karadzic, 70, was found him guilty of 10 of 11 charges, including genocide relating to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Here, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Serbs give their reaction to the verdict.

Asim Delalic, Bosniak, 25, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

My father was killed in the war. My grandparents, who were unarmed civilians, were burned alive on the orders of this evil man.

We lost our home, our families and our lives. I was three years old when it happened. I was too young then to remember what happened, but I grew up without a father.

It was a messed up situation. Karadzic caused so much pain and suffering to people.

How do you compensate the thousands of people who lived through what happened here in the 1990s?

This verdict is not unexpected. He is an old man now anyway and he will die in prison.

Is it a relief? Yes and no. This is a high profile case and it's a relief that he's in jail, but he is just one and there were lots of others who were never caught.

It doesn't matter what the verdict is at this stage as it won't give any inner peace to people here.

Too much happened and I don't think people will ever move on properly.

Edna Siljdedic, 20, Bosniak, from Sarajevo, lives in San Francisco

I am excited about the verdict. I hope Radovan Karadzic is in great pain knowing that Bosnians across the world are rejoicing in his conviction.

I am proud to be Bosnian and of the successes of Bosnians all over the world.

I left when I was two years old so I didn't experience the war in the same way my family did.

I never feared for my life or hid from shelling and sniper fire. However, I live with the consequences of it every day of my life.

My father was killed while my mother was pregnant with me in July of 1995. Two of my uncles were also killed during the war.

My family had lived in Sarajevo for generations. After the war, my mother took my siblings and I to Croatia and then to San Francisco as refugees.

My brother has moved back, but my mother and my sister stayed in the US.

My sister has not been back to Sarajevo since the war. Since I was 10, I've visited every year.

It's easy to be a pessimist, but today's conviction of Radovan Karadzic gives me hope. Despite war and genocide, we continue to stay strong and to live.

Daniel Milosevic, 34, Bosnian Serb, originally from Zavidovici, lives in Ohio, USA

Today's verdict was not a matter of whether Karadzic would be found guilty, but how many years he would serve in jail.

I think that most Serbs have no trust in the war crimes tribunal, so it turned out as expected.

I see it as a step backwards for the reconciliation of the nation, because old wounds are being brought up and Serbs feel like their side of story was never told.

I was seven years old when the war started. My family moved to the US before the conflict started. We had meant to go back but the war started and we couldn't return.

I lost all the people who took care of me when I was little during the war. I can never go back because for me that place in my childhood has gone.

I'm a realist. There were deaths on all sides and atrocities were committed by the Bosnian Serb forces.

But I don't understand why Bosnian Muslims and Croats were not tried in the same numbers for crimes committed against the Serbian population in Bosnia.

This verdict won't change anything. I think that wounds will never heal back home.

I used to think that they would as younger generations became older, but those positions have hardened.

Sejfudin Hodzic, 43, Bosniak, Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina

I am a survivor of the genocide in Zvornik, where thousands were killed and hundreds were kept in inhumane conditions in a concentration camp during the conflict.

There were indiscriminate killings in the city by Bosnian Serb forces, especially between 1992 and 1993.

A lot of members of my family were killed, including my brother.

Those of us who fled to the mountains nearby lived in inhumane conditions, sometimes sleeping outside in the cold of winter.

I moved to London for 11 years from 1995 after leaving Zvornik. I returned and rebuilt my family home, which had been blown up.

I knew victims as well as the perpetrators and now live side by side with some of the people who caused those atrocities.

Ordinary people have come a long way with the reconciliation process and have moved on.

The verdict was as I expected. For us, who lived through the horror, there is not a high enough sentence that can be handed down to Karadzic. But the more, the better.

The effect of the verdict is the most important thing.

It should have an impact on the future of this country, but without political pressure from outside on the politicians in this country, it won't be a positive impact.

'Rona' (not their real name), Serb

It is a shame that Radovan Karadzic was found guilty.

Thousands were murdered on all sides in this war.

Muslims were murdering Serbs too. Radovan is a great Serb and if he has been found guilty, then what about all the others involved in the conflict?

Where are all the Croatians and Bosnians from the war?

The conflict effectively started years before 1992 and it only stopped on paper in 1995.

There is still hatred on all sides involved in the war.

The court in The Hague is only interested in trying Serbs, as they did with (former Yugoslav president) Slobodan Milosevic, before he died, and (former Bosnian Serb army chief) Ratko Mladic.

I just want people around the world to learn the truth from our side, the Serbian side and not only see bad stories about us all the time.

Additional reporting by Susanna Cooper.