Karadzic the barbarian is shown to be a coward

The long-awaited trial of the mastermind of the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia began Monday in The Hague, Netherlands. But Radovan Karadzic was a no-show.

Indeed, Karadzic boycotted his trial on Tuesday, despite warnings from the war crimes tribunal presiding judge that he could be stripped of the right to defend himself.

But it might have been prescient that the man accused of having the blood of thousands, including 8,000 Muslims, on his hands as the leader of the ethnic Serbs during the Bosnian war, stayed away.

Because had he been present at the trial he would have heard his hate-laced words urging the destruction of Bosnia’s non-Serbs.

Chief Prosecutor Alan Tieger, leading the United Nations prosecutorial team, played video of a notorious speech Karadzic gave before war broke out in the Balkans in which he predicted that Muslims would disappear from Bosnia.

“By the disappearance of the Muslim people, Karadzic meant that they would be physically annihilated,” Tieger said.

Karadzic faces 11 charges — two genocide counts and nine other war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has refused to enter any pleas, but insists he is innocent. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

“(Karadzic) harnessed the forces of nationalism, hatred and fear to pursue his vision of an ethnically segregated Bosnia,” Tieger said.

Prosecutors allege Karadzic was the driving force behind atrocities beginning with the ethnic cleansing of towns and villages to create an ethnically pure Serb state in 1992 and culminating in Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces.

Court motions

Karadzic, who has submitted more than 250 motions to the court since he decided to represent himself, claims he has not had enough time to prepare for his defense, even though he was arrested 13 months ago.

Judge O-Gon Kwon said he will consider imposing a lawyer to represent Karadzic if he continues to boycott proceedings.

Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 after evading arrest for 13 years during which time he lived under the noses of those seeking to bring him to justice. He concealed his identity with a long, white beard and practiced alternative medicine in Belgrade, Serbia. He was arrested in a Belgrade — by a stroke of luck. He wasn’t the intended target. Serbian security forces were looking for Gen. Ratko Mladic, Karadzic’s wartime commander, when they literally stumbled onto the former Serbian leader.

What make Karadzic’s conduct of the war all the more horrific was the fact that Srebrenica, a U.N. safe haven for Muslim refugees, was overrun by Serbian forces loyal to the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, resulting in a rampage that lasted a week.

The Serbs separated men and boys, forced them to strip, killed them and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves.

With this manifestation of evil as the backdrop, the trial in The Hague should not be derailed by the defendant’s mockery of the system of justice. He must be forced to face his accusers — the thousands of victims, many of them women and children — who will not rest in peace until Karadzic the barbarian is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.