Court hears how Karadzic laid the basis for ethnic cleansing

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic again refused to attend his trial at the Yugoslavia tribunal in The Hague on Tuesday. In doing so he missed the opening remarks of prosecutor Alan Tieger.

"Despite our warnings, Mr Karadzic is not present," judge O-Gon Kwon noted on what was supposed to be the second day of the trial against him. "He has chosen this course himself and must therefore accept the consequences." The UN judge went on to invite the prosecutors andKaradzic to present suggestions on how the current impasse can be broken. He himself made four suggestions: allow the trial to continue until cross-examination begins, impose a lawyer to representKaradizic, postpone the trial while a lawyer studies the case and appoint an amicus curiae - 'a friend of the court' - to represent the interests of the accused in the absence of a lawyer.

These suggestions will be discussed in a separate hearing with both parties next Tuesday. According to his legal adviser Marko Sladojevic, Karadzic will attend this hearing. "Dr Karadzic is not boycotting the trial. He merely needs more time to prepare," says Sladojevic.

"Ethnic cleansing was not the result but the aim of the war in Bosnia," the prosecutor said on Tuesday. In a five-hour statement he painted a picture ofKaradzic as a megalomanic leader who in his drive for a pure Serbian state in Bosnia laid the basis for war crimes and ethnic cleansing. "This is the trial of a leader who harnessed the forces of nationalism, hatred and fear to implement his vision of an ethnically separated Bosnia. That leader isRadovan Karadzic," said Tieger, staring at the blue chair where the accused usually sits.

Tieger set out how Karadzic - president, party leader and supreme commander during the Bosnian war (1992-1995) - is responsible for genocide, the siege of Sarajevo and the taking hostage of UN peace soldiers.

Tieger illustrated his argument with Karadzic's own words, compromising documents and video images. On the siege of Sarajevo, the prosecutor quoted Karadzic: "Sarajevo will become a black cauldron in which 300,000 Muslims will disappear." And according to Tieger, Karadzic said of Muslims: "They will disappear from the face of the earth."