**Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he was seeking to defend Bosnian Serbs from “state-sponsored terrorism” during the 1992-95 civil conflict.**Mr Karadzic told his trial at The Hague he had tried to prevent war and had appeared on TV to appeal for peace.
He insists he is innocent of all 11 charges from the Bosnian war, including genocide and war crimes.
On Monday, Mr Karadzic described the conflict as “just and holy”, but blamed Bosnian Muslims for starting it.
Up until then, he had boycotted and sought to delay the trial, which had been adjourned since November.
Meanwhile, a former Bosnian Muslim leader, Ejup Ganic, was arrested in the UK on war crimes charges dating back to the Bosnian war.
He was detained under an extradition warrant issued by Serbia.
‘Chances for peace’
On the second day of his opening statement at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Mr Karadzic said the political crisis in Bosnia had isolated Serbs and made them targets as Muslims [Bosniaks] sought independence.
“There was massive, massive abuse by the joint police - the Muslim police. They were wreaking havoc”
Radovan Karadzic
Serb leaders had tried to “protect the Serb people from their own state, from their own police, from the state-sponsored terror of their own country”, including a provocative attack on a wedding, he said.
“There was massive, massive abuse by the joint police - the Muslim police. They were wreaking havoc,” he added.
Mr Karadzic said there had been “several chances and options for peace” before the war, but that they were rejected by the Bosniaks.
The 64-year-old also spoke about the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which ended in November 1995 after the loss of 12,000 lives.
THE CHARGES
- Eleven counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities
- Charged over shelling of Sarajevo during the city’s siege, in which some 12,000 civilians died
- Allegedly organised the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosniak men and youths in Srebrenica
- Targeted Bosniak and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals
- Unlawfully deported and transferred civilians because of national or religious identity
- Destroyed homes, businesses and sacred sites
Delays and prevarications at trial
Key excerpts: Opening statement
On the night of 5 April 1992 - considered the eve of the war - “terror broke loose” in the city, with snipers positioned in high-rise buildings, he said.
“It was terrible to be a Serb that night in Sarajevo.”
In response, Serbs withdrew to their own districts and tried to defend their families, he added.
“That is how the line dividing the town was established. It wasn’t a line of siege, it was a line separating and dividing two parts of the town.”
Correspondents say Mr Karadzic is trying to show that there was no joint criminal enterprise to carry out the genocide or “ethnic cleansing”, but that Serbs were only defending themselves from perceived Muslim aggression.
He is also expected to speak about the killing of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995 in his defence statement.
‘Ethnic cleansing’
Mr Karadzic faces two charges of genocide, as well as nine other counts including murder, extermination, persecution and forced deportation.
Prosecutors say he orchestrated a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against Muslims and Croats in eastern Bosnia to create an ethnically pure Serbian state.
In his opening statement last October, prosecutor Alan Tieger said Mr Karadzic had “harnessed the forces of nationalism, hatred and fear to pursue his vision of an ethnically segregated Bosnia”.
Mr Karadzic had boycotted earlier proceedings, insisting on more time to prepare his case.
In November, the court appointed British lawyer Richard Harvey to take over the defence if he continued his boycott.
Mr Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 after nearly 13 years on the run.
During his time in power, he was president of the self-styled Bosnian Serb Republic and commander of its army during the Bosnian conflict which left more than 100,000 people dead.
He is the most significant figure to face justice at this tribunal since the former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, who died of a heart attack in 2006 before his own trial was concluded.