Karadzic appears in court
2008-07-31 16:29
The Hague - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic stood before the UN war crimes court on Thursday to face genocide charges, in his first public appearance since his arrest after nearly 13 years on the run.
Shorn of the beard and long hair he had used as a disguise until his capture on July 21, Karadzic was again recognisable as the man who became one of the most reviled figures in the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s.
Wearing a dark jacket and tie, Karazdic appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to hear the 11 war crimes charges which were first laid against him in 1995.
Karadzic has indicated that he will conduct his own
defence - the same tactic adopted by his former ally late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who dragged out his own ICTY trial for years and died before it ended.
His brother was quoted on Thursday as saying that Kardzic had prepared extensively for his defence while in hiding.
Laptop taken
"He was well-prepared for his possible arrest and thinks everything will end well," Luka Karadzic told the Russian daily Izvestia.
He added that the authorities who captured Karadzic in Serbia had confiscated his laptop and more than 50 discs containing documents prepared for his defence.
The bulk of the charges against Karadzic focus on his role in 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 the UN-protected safe area of Srebrenica.
If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.