Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the mastermind of the massacre of thousands of Muslims, described Monday, March 1 the Bosnia war as “just and holy”.
"I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy," he told the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
"We have a good case. We have good evidence and proof."
Karadzic, 64, faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnia war.
More than a million non-Serbs were driven from their homes by Serbian forces from villages where they had lived for generations.
The expulsions were accompanied by widespread killings and up to 20,000 rapes in a calculated program of terror that left the international community both shocked and impotent to respond.
More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and buried in mass graves in Srebrenica alone, which was a UN-protected Muslim enclave until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Serb forces.
Prosecutors say Karadzic led a genocidal campaign to make Bosnian Muslims "disappear from the face of the earth".
But the Serbian leader alleges that Serbs had acted legitimately to "provocations" from the Muslim-held enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa.
"The Serbs were not engaged in action, they were engaged in reaction," he said from the defense lawyers’ bench at the tribunal.
Justice
Hundreds of war survivors and families of Srebrenica victims gathered outside the courthouse to demand justice.
"We are here today to tell the whole world that victims are still alive,” Melina Hadziselimovic of the Mothers of Srebrenica movement told Reuters.
“We are waiting for the truth and for justice."
The court has rejected Karadzic’s request to postpone the trial until June 17 after his two-day opening statement to study an additional 400,000 pages of prosecution evidence he claims have been filed since October.
“We expect from the court that the trial will be as short as possible, that the Milosevic episode won’t be repeated, and that the people of Bosnia Herzegovina can move on with their lives,” Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica, told Euro News.
Hatidza Mehmedovic had lost her husband and two sons at Srebrenica.
"What he is telling here today is really not true,” she told reporters outside the court.
“I experienced Srebrenica and the war in Bosnia and this is not what my experience is.
"For us victims, the most important thing is that this monster faces justice."
"I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy," he told the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
"We have a good case. We have good evidence and proof."
Karadzic, 64, faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnia war.
More than a million non-Serbs were driven from their homes by Serbian forces from villages where they had lived for generations.
The expulsions were accompanied by widespread killings and up to 20,000 rapes in a calculated program of terror that left the international community both shocked and impotent to respond.
More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and buried in mass graves in Srebrenica alone, which was a UN-protected Muslim enclave until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Serb forces.
Prosecutors say Karadzic led a genocidal campaign to make Bosnian Muslims "disappear from the face of the earth".
But the Serbian leader alleges that Serbs had acted legitimately to "provocations" from the Muslim-held enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa.
"The Serbs were not engaged in action, they were engaged in reaction," he said from the defense lawyers’ bench at the tribunal.
Justice
Hundreds of war survivors and families of Srebrenica victims gathered outside the courthouse to demand justice.
"We are here today to tell the whole world that victims are still alive,” Melina Hadziselimovic of the Mothers of Srebrenica movement told Reuters.
“We are waiting for the truth and for justice."
The court has rejected Karadzic’s request to postpone the trial until June 17 after his two-day opening statement to study an additional 400,000 pages of prosecution evidence he claims have been filed since October.
“We expect from the court that the trial will be as short as possible, that the Milosevic episode won’t be repeated, and that the people of Bosnia Herzegovina can move on with their lives,” Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica, told Euro News.
Hatidza Mehmedovic had lost her husband and two sons at Srebrenica.
"What he is telling here today is really not true,” she told reporters outside the court.
“I experienced Srebrenica and the war in Bosnia and this is not what my experience is.
"For us victims, the most important thing is that this monster faces justice."
