THE HAGUE: Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic refused to enter a plea before a UN war crimes court yesterday, attacking the tribunal’s independence and labeling it “a court of NATO.”
An automatic not guilty plea was entered on his behalf as Karadzic made his second appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since his arrest in Belgrade last month.
The 63-year-old faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, notably for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 dead and the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
“This court is representing itself falsely as a court of the international community where it is in fact a court of NATO,” Karadzic said, claiming the trans-Atlantic alliance was out “to liquidate me.”
NATO air raids were instrumental in halting the conflict in Bosnia in which more than 100,000 people died and the alliance went on to command a multinational peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslav republic.
When Karadzic refused to plead, Judge Iain Bonomy entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf as tribunal rules dictate.
“I would rather hear you say that (not guilty) at the end of the trial than at the beginning,” quipped Karadzic, wearing a dark suit and red tie and giving off an indifferent air throughout his brief appearance.
Karadzic, who is accused of “ethnic cleansing” of Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, opted at his first ICTY appearance on July 31 to delay entering a plea.
Like then, he had no lawyers present yesterday, explaining that he would put together “a team of associates” to assist him in time for the prosecution’s filing of an amended indictment.
Alan Tieger, for the prosecution, told the court the new charge sheet should be filed by the last week of September, saying investigators were in the process of “reviewing a vast volume of material.”
Judge Bonomy expressed surprise that the prosecution had waited until Karadzic’s arrest to start this review, and urged it to make haste.
Karadzic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia” by some media, was arrested six weeks ago on a Belgrade bus posing as a doctor of alternative medicine called Dragan Dabic.
In his submissions to the court so far, Karadzic has challenged the legality of his trial and urged the UN court to order evidence from former US diplomat Richard Holbrooke about an alleged secret deal. He claimed Holbrooke had promised him at the end of Bosnia’s bloody war that he would not face prosecution if he disappeared from the public view.
