Karadzic boycotting trial

23/10/2009

Ignoring the former Bosnian Serb leader's pleas, Hague officials say Karadzic's trial will begin next week, with or without him.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 23/10/09

Radovan Karadzic. [Getty Images]

Radovan Karadzic has announced he will boycott his trial, which is scheduled to begin at The Hague on Monday (October 26th). He faces charges of genocide and war crimes committed during the conflict in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995.

The former Republika Srpska (RS) president claims he does not have enough time to prepare his defence, as he is representing himself in court.

"My decision to defend myself was not an easy one, and was not an expression of lack of confidence in attorneys, but belief that the actual situation is so complicated that it can be understood and presented only by someone who was involved in it from the first day to the last," Karadzic said.

In a letter to the tribunal judges, Karadzic took a defiant tone. "My participation in the process in such obvious circumstances would be my only crime, for which I would deserve the contempt of all victims of war and the damnation of future generations," Karadzic said.

The defendant said he might be ready for trial in May or June of next year, but the tribunal dismissed that claim, and announced the trial would start even without the presence of the defendant. "The Hearings Chamber is the only body relevant for deciding whether the case is ready for trial," tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said.

Karadzic has been trying to prove that he cannot be tried because of an alleged agreement he made with former US envoy Richard Holbrooke. The tribunal dismissed those arguments.

On Wednesday (October 21st), the tribunal also turned down Karadzic’s request for the exclusion of Judge Melville Baird of Trinidad and Tobago.

The war crimes suspect was first indicted by the tribunal in 1995. Under pressure from the international community, and at the insistence of then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic transferred his RS presidential authority to then Vice President Biljana Plavsic, and withdrew from the public eye.

He hid successfully until last year, when he was arrested in Belgrade. He had been living in the Serbian capital for several years, masked by long hair, a beard and the alias Dragan Dabic, an alternative medicine practitioner. He had also worked at a private clinic in Belgrade, moved freely around the city and even participated in panel discussions on alternative treatment methods.