Karadzic convinced he will win
2008-07-31 21:15
Belgrade - Radovan Karadzic will conduct his own defence in the Hague tribunal and is convinced he will be cleared of the charges of genocide, relatives and associates of the war crimes suspect said on Wednesday.
Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs in the 1992-95 Bosnia war, was arrested in Serbia on Monday after 11 years on the run.
He was one of three war crimes fugitives from the Yugoslav wars, their arrest a key condition for Serbia to move towards European Union membership. He is currently in a Belgrade prison awaiting extradition, which could come sometime this weekend.
Karadzic's lawyer in Serbia, Svetozar Vujacic, said his client was in good mental and physical condition. He was not talking to investigators, but "defending himself with silence".
"He is going to have a legal team in Serbia but will defend himself during his trial at The Hague," Vujacic told Reuters.
"He is convinced that with the help of God he will win."
Karadzic is twice indicted for genocide for the massacre of 8 000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in 1995 and for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo. Some 11 000 people died in the city from sniper fire, mortar attacks, starvation and illness.
Worked as doctor
Karadzic had wanted Serb areas of Bosnia to be linked to Serbia and other Serb-dominated areas at a time when autocrat Slobodan Milosevic was fanning nationalism in Serbia.
The former Bosnian Serb leader lived under an assumed name for years and worked as a doctor of alternative medicine.
He was very devout, fasting every Wednesday and Friday, and on all big Orthodox holidays. Freely moving around town, he was a regular in a Belgrade tavern owned by a Bosnian Serb, where he drank red wine and chatted to guests.
On Wednesday he asked and got a haircut and shave in prison.
"He looks like his old self, a bit aged," Vujacic said.
Vujacic said he would formally appeal against Karadzic's extradition order on Friday, when a legal deadline expires, to allow his family to visit, if they are allowed to leave Bosnia.
Planned to turn himself in
Karadzic's wife and children are banned from leaving Bosnia under measures meant to choke off Karadzic's support network. They are now waiting for permission to travel to Serbia.
"He planned to turn himself in January 2009 because that is when the Hague tribunal is due to stop launching new trials," his brother Luka Karadzic said. Most Serbs see the Hague tribunal as biased against their nation.
Inside Serbia, the reaction has been muted. Government ministers have kept quiet, fearing a backlash from hardline nationalists who see Karadzic and Mladic as heroes.
"All true Serbs know what Radovan Karadzic stands for," the fringe group Obraz (Dignity) said in a statement. "If Serbia's enemies and their servants here think they have destroyed his legend, they are very wrong. We are all Radovan."