FORMER Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has insisted UN prosecutors do not have "a shred of evidence" linking him to atrocities throughout the Bosnian war and accused them of putting the entire Serb people on trial.
In an 874-page written brief summarising his defence, Mr Karadzic said he should not be convicted by the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal but acknowledged that, as wartime leader of the breakaway Serb entity in Bosnia, he "bears moral responsibility for any crimes committed by citizens and forces of Republika Srpska".
Mr Karadzic is charged with crimes including genocide and persecution committed by Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 war that left 100,000 dead. Prosecutors say he should be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In court at The Hague, the 69-year-old said his 11-count indictment was based on the contention he was a key member of a criminal plot to rid Serb-dominated areas of Bosnia of Muslims and Croats.
Without that theory, "the only thing that would remain would be my good deeds towards my people and the other two peoples", he told judges who are expected to take months to reach verdicts.
In his written arguments, Mr Karadzic said he was unaware at the time of the slaughter of Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica in 1995 - the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War - and said evidence at his trial called into question the number of people killed - widely accepted as more than 7,000 - and whether the killings amounted to genocide.
He accused prosecutors of building their case on "allusions, random chit-chat, (and) testimony by their own employees".
And suggesting that prosecutors were trying not only him, but all Bosnian Serbs, Mr Karadzic said: "If I am crazy, are a million-and-a-half crazy who let their only sons go into freezing trenches to defend their homes and families for three years?"
The case continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article