Karadzic is a nasty piece of work, but is he really guilty of genocide?

ONE of the biggest and most keenly awaited trials of the past half century opened on Monday but without the benefit of the defendant. The infamous Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs’ political leader during the Bosnian war of 1992-’95 which left at least 100,000 dead, refused to attend because he said he needs more time to prepare his defence.

Neither Karadzic nor any of his legal advisers was present at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) when the South Korean judge started the hearing, which was adjourned after 15 minutes.

We have been here before: the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic should remind the UN how such carefully staged showpieces can turn into embarrassing debacles. He also tried to string things out at his trial — and largely succeeded — before finally committing suicide in his prison cell.