Karadzic appears at war crimes court

Ex-Serb leader calls capture a kidnapping

(Damir Sagoli/Reuters) Beneath photographs of victims of the genocide during 1992-1995 Bosnian war, Muslim women from Srebrenica watched television coverage of the court proceedings for the former Bosnian Serb leader yesterday.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Thirteen years after his indictment as a war criminal, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, shorn of the long hair and bushy beard that disguised him during his years as a fugitive, finally appeared before an international court on yesterday to answer charges of genocide.

Karadzic, 63, who was transferred early Wednesday from Serbia to a jail cell near here, was gaunt and unsmiling, in contrast to his years as the swaggering leader of the Bosnian Serbs. One of the men most closely associated with the horrors of the Yugoslav conflict, Karadzic has been charged with the massacre of some 7,000 Muslim boys and men at Srebrenica in 1995.

But his temper broke through in a testy exchange with the court judge as he said that, prior to being handed over to the authorities on July 21, he had been kidnapped and illegally held for three days in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

He also raised an old accusation, saying he had gone into hiding in 1995 in a deal arranged with the US negotiator at the time, Richard C. Holbrooke. Holbrooke has denied making any such deal. Asked about such claims in an interview published on July 26 in Germany's Spiegel magazine, Holbrooke said, "Those are lies I do not comment on any longer."

Holbrooke brokered the agreements in Dayton, Ohio, that ended the war in Bosnia. Karadzic said the arrangement put his life in danger.

"At that time, I was in danger of being liquidated because I had made a deal," Karadzic said. "There was an intention to liquidate me."

He said he remained concerned about his safety in the court, and offered a somewhat bizarre accusation. "He still wants my death," he said of Holbrooke, wondering aloud if his "arm is long enough to reach me here."

As the session began in Courtroom One of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Karadzic, wearing a dark suit and tie, listened silently as a summary of the indictment was read out in the court in English.

Asked by the judge if were indeed Radovan Karadzic, he answered in Serbian, "I am."

Open to spectators and recorded by official court cameras, the hearing offered a first public glimpse of the man who evaded capture for so long, most recently hiding behind a disguise as a practitioner of alternative medicine.

Clean shaven and with his white hair cut short and combed back neatly, Karadzic, wearing earphones to listen to the Serbian translation of the court proceedings, confirmed that he intended to represent himself.

But the judge - perhaps mindful of the drawn-out proceedings in the case of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, who died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 while still awaiting a verdict - quickly cautioned Karadzic that his right to self-representation was not absolute.

Asked by the judge about his health, Karadzic said, "My health is perfect."

He remained grave but impassive as the judge listed the charges against him - genocide, complicity in genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity, and four counts of war crimes - as the leader of the Bosnian Serb republic during a period in which military, paramilitary, police, and other security and intelligence forces killed and terrorized civilians in a campaign to drive Muslims and Croats out of Serb-claimed territories in Bosnia.

He was specifically charged with responsibility for the massacre of some 7,000 Muslim boys and men at Srebrenica in 1995, and for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, in which Bosnian Serb forces used shells and snipers to "kill, maim, wound, and terrorize" civilians, including children.

Karadzic rubbed his forehead as the words were translated.

The hearing lasted about 70 minutes. Asked at the end whether he was content with his treatment by officials at the court, he said he had no complaints.

"I have been in worse places," he said curtly. "So everything is all right."

He offered the alternative version of his arrest, one presented last week by his lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic. He said that he had been taken captive the week before his official arrest and held by unknown agents who did not properly inform him of his rights and denied him the ability to make a telephone call to his family and friends.