In July 2008 an eleven-point charge was made against Mr Karadzic for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes committed during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. The accusation focuses on the siege of Sarajevo in which some 10,000 people were killed, and the mass murder of 8,000 muslim men from Srebrenica.
The charges had been formulated in 2000 by the then Chief Prosecutor of the Yugoslavia Tribunal, Carla del Ponte. Mr Karadzic refused to respond because Ms Del Ponte's successor Serge Brammertz had announced he was changing the charges, based on recent precedents.
Angry judge
The pause for thought that Mr Karadzic had been given according to the rules of the Tribunal is over, but still there are no new charges to press. And therefore Mr Karadzic again refused to answer.
Judge Iain Bonomy's reaction to the non-appearance of revised charges was conspicuously irritated. He refused to accept the argument put forward by Prosecutor Alan Teager that so much has happened in legal terms during the eight years since the original accusations that it may even be September before the revision is presented.
Judge Bonomy said,
"Well, Mr Teager, speaking for myself, I find it surprising that bearing in mind the period since the original indictment, and the significance in the life and to the life of this Tribunal of this particular case, that you tell me now that it's only once the accused is in custody that this exercise is undertaken. I am surprised, I will say no more than that at this stage, and I sincerely hope you are not serious about that date."
Court biased
Despite this delay the judge found that there were no convincing arguments for Mr Karadzic to remain silent. When the new charges arrive he will have plenty of time to react, Mr Bonomy promised. But Mr Karadzic refused to budge. He indicated that the lack of a definitive indictment was not the only factor; he also has doubts about the impartiality of the court.
"I want to know what is happening with my submissions, the ones in which I expressed my doubts about the possibility of holding this trial at all, because of the many errors made and also because I am deeply convinced that this court is representing itself falsely as a court of the international community, whereas it is in fact a court of NATO whose aim is to liquidate me.""I have stopped presenting myself under a false identity", said Mr Karadzic who claimed to be a natural healer called Dragan Dabic when he was arrested. "Now it is your turn..."
Delay tactics
Over the past few weeks Mr Karadzic rained an incessant barrage of criticisms and complaints on the Yugoslavia Tribunal. Some of these bore fruit: the judge presiding over the accused's first arraignment, Dutchman Alphons Orie, was replaced when Mr Karadzic accused him of bias. Although the official reason the Tribunal gave for his removal was ‘to better divide the workload'.
Experts fear that Mr Karadzic, who is conducting his own defence, will follow the steps of Serbia's ex-president Slobodan Milosevic, who kept sabotaging and delaying his trial until the very day he died.
But during the second session it once again became clear that Mr Karadzic's approach is not the same. Mr Milosevic even refused to wear headphones or accept documents he was handed, in order to demonstrate that he did not recognize the Tribunal. Mr Karadzic for his part listened politely to what Judge Bonomy was saying.
When the judge made it clear that Mr Karadzic's silence would lead to an automatic plea of "not guilty" in the session report, he wittily replied, "I would rather hear you say that [not guilty] at the end of the trial than at the beginning."
* RNW translation (rk)
Tags: civil war, crimes against humanity, genocide, Karadzic, plea, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, The Hague, tribunal, Yugoslavia