Karadzic Denies Claims He Masterminded Killings
Karadzic Denies Claims He Masterminded Killings
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic cast himself as a “mild man, a tolerant man” who tried to prevent war and then worked to reduce casualties on all sides in the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict, as he opened his defense in his long-running genocide trial Tuesday.
His claims brought snorts of derision and cries of, “He’s lying! He’s lying!” from Muslim survivors of the war watching from the public gallery.
Karadzic, who faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity, was given 90 minutes to make a statement on his role in the war that left an estimated 100,000 dead. The statement was not made under oath, meaning Karadzic could not be cross-examined by prosecutors.
In another of the tribunal’s courtrooms, Goran Hadzic, a former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, became the last of the tribunal’s 161 indicted suspects to face justice as his trial got under way.