Karadzic attends UN court hearing for first time

THE HAGUE – Radovan Karadzic appeared at his UN war crimes trial yesterday for the first time since it began last week, claiming his ‘fundamental rights have been violated’ by judges who started without him.

The former Bosnian Serb leader, accused of masterminding Serb atrocities throughout the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, had boycotted the first three days of the trial. Yesterday, Karadzic, who is defending himself, again insisted that he needed more time to prepare.’I do not want to boycott these proceedings, but I cannot take part in something that has been bad from the start and where my fundamental rights have been violated,’ Karadzic said.Karadzic faces two counts of genocide and nine other charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He has refused to enter pleas, but insists he is innocent of all charges.The prosecution’s two-day opening statement portrayed Karadzic as the supreme commander of a brutal campaign to ethnically cleanse Muslims and Croats from Bosnian Serb claimed territory. The campaign included the deadly 44-month siege of the capital, Sarajevo, and culminated in the 1995 massacre of some 8 000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica.Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff urged judges to impose a court-appointed lawyer on Karadzic so that the case can continue even if he continues his boycott.’Mr. Karadzic cannot be allowed to manipulate the proceedings through his decision to not attend hearings,’ she said.The court is desperate to avoid Karadzic’s trial becoming a carbon copy of the case against his political mentor, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, whose political grandstanding, stalling tactics and ill health dragged his trial out for more than four years.He died in 2006 of a heart attack befire evrdict was given. Karadzic says he has not had enough time to prepare his defense even though he was indicted in 1995 and has been in custody for 14 months.- Nampa-AP