Karadzic set to face war crimes court
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's only regret about the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims was that some survived, his war crime trial heard today.
Karadzic again boycotted the hearing at the tribunal in the Hague, but told judges that he would attend a procedural hearing tomorrow on his defence case.
UN prosecutor Alan Tieger focused on Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War as he wound up his opening statement for the tribunal's judges. He called the July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica "one of humanity's dark chapters" and laid the blame squarely at Karadzic's feet.
"The murder of these men and the expulsion of the women, children and elderly did not arise from nowhere," he said. "These crimes were the culmination of the accused's determination to cleanse eastern Bosnia to ensure the Serb state he envisioned."
Karadzic is charged with two counts of genocide and nine other crimes against humanity and war crimes linked to atrocities throughout Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
He has refused to enter pleas, but insists he is innocent. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Karadzic's boycott of the trial last week frustrated dozens of war survivors - many of them widows from Srebrenica - who had travelled hundreds of miles by bus to see him face justice after 13 years on the run.
The 64-year-old wrote to judges that he would attend tomorrow's hearing to help find "a solution which will lead to not only an expeditious trial, but a fair one".
Karadzic claims that he did not have enough time to prepare his defence, despite having been charged first in 1995 and arrested 14 months ago on a Belgrade bus, disguised as a New Age healer.
Since then, he has been working on his defence in his cell at the tribunal's detention centre.
Karadzic insists he needs up to eight more months to be ready for his trial, and wants to defend himself.
Judges will tomorrow consider imposing a defence lawyer on Karadzic. That could further delay the trial as a new lawyer would need to familiarise himself with the sprawling case.
Mr Tieger today also underscored the pivotal role played by Europe's most-wanted war crimes suspect, general Ratko Mladic, in the Srebrenica takeover.
He said Mladic, Karadzic's wartime military chief, met with Dutch UN peacekeepers and Bosnian Muslim men in a hotel shortly after Serb forces overran Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, and told them he wanted to discuss with Muslim representatives whether they wanted to "survive, stay or vanish".
Mladic also is charged with genocide for his alleged role in the Srebrenica massacre, but he remains on the run.
Mr Tieger showed judges video footage of Mladic strutting through Srebrenica's deserted streets on July 11 and saying to a camera that "the time has come to take revenge on the Turks".
