THE HAGUE 1 Mar 2010 Karadzic trial resumes

The trial of Radovan Karadzic at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia resumes in March. The former Bosnian Serb leader boycotted the trial when it started in September, and the tribunal has appointed an attorney to represent him should he boycott the resumption of the case. Karadzic faces 11 counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity from the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzigovina when he was president of a breakaway Serb republic. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who was indicted on the same charges with Karadzic in 1995, is still at large. Serbia has stepped up efforts to capture Mladic — a precondition for joining the European Union — but a former Mladic associate suggested in an AP story about the fugitive that he has high-level Serbian protection from arrest.

Prosecutors accuse Karadzic of masterminding atrocities by Serb forces throughout the war. He is accused of leading a campaign that killed thousands of men, women and children -- mainly Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats who were killed by Serbs as part of a violent effort to rid the region of non-Serbs. The campaign included the deadly siege of the capital Sarajevo and the July 1995 massacre of some 8000 Muslim men in the Srebrenica enclave.

Karadzic, who is defending himself, has said that he never planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise participated in any of the crimes with which he has been charged.

The court entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Karadzic.

Disguised with a long white beard and long white hair, Karadzic, a physician by profession, worked as an alternative medicine therapist in a Belgrade clinic during some 10 years at large before his arrest in Jul 2008.

The Bosnian war was Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II and the most protracted of the wars triggered by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Nov/09

RELATED READING:

Karadzic counsel appointed (Reuters 5 Nov 2009)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL5518512

International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC?lan=en-GB

Karadzic trial faces further delay (CNN 1 Jul 2009)
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/01/karadzic.trial/