Karadzic war crimes trial begins

(Vatican Radio) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has denied responsibility for genocide and other war crimes, saying instead he should be rewarded for trying to avoid more bloodshed. Karadzic made the remarks as he began his defense Tuesday at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague, which also launched its last war crimes court case.

"The international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is now in session...Please be seated.”

The words of a court official marked the beginning of the long anticipated defense by war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, detained in 2008 after years on the run.

Wearing a suit and appearing defiant, he introduced himself as a peace-loving "medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, group analyst and writer", who could never have carried out atrocities during the Bosnian war of the early 1990s.

Though he was also president of the Bosnian Serbs at the time, Karadzic claimed he had been wrongly charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Instead of being accused over events in our civil war I should have been rewarded because I did everything within human power to avoid the war," he told the court.


SURVIVORS PROTEST

Karadzic did not appear disturbed by cries of "He's lying! He's lying!" from some Muslim survivors of the three-year war that left over 100,000 dead.

In an extensive statement he denied involvement in several atrocities, including the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Karadzic said he heard about what has been described as Europe's worst single atrocity since World War Two, but added he wasn't able to conclude an investigation as he was forced to step down as president.

He also addressed the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb troops, saying Muslims faked the circumstances of the shelling of a marketplace in February 1994, which killed 68 people and injured 144 others, and another similar attack.

He claimed it was for his forces "impossible to reach that area and cause so much damage." Karadzic said it was a scandalous orchestration" by Muslim fighters to blame Serbs.

FIRST WITNESS

Karadzic called a Russian colonel Andrej Demurenko as a first witness who backed up his claims that Bosnian Serb forces could not have fired the shell.

However Karadzic did acknowledge that feared Serb snipers were used during the Bosnian war in Sarajevo.

He said he always found "snipers horrible and inhuman," but added that, "using them was a legal military method to eliminate the enemies."

As Karadzic opened his defense, the tribunal also began a separate trial of its last suspect, Goran Hadzic, who is accused of murder, torture and forcible deportation.

He allegedly oversaw these atrocities while being president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia.

The UN court is under pressure to close down by 2014 after paving the way for a permanent war crimes court.


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