Karadzic: I am not an autocrat
Source: Agencies |
October 17, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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FORMER Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic cast himself as a "mild man, a tolerant man" who tried to prevent war and then worked to reduce casualties on all sides in the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict, as he opened his defense in his long-running genocide trial yesterday in the Hague.
Karadzic, who faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity, was given 90 minutes to make a statement on his role in the war that left an estimated 100,000 dead.
Karadzic, a former psychologist and poet, told judges he was a "physician and literary man" who was a reluctant player in the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.
"Instead of being accused of the events in our war, I should be rewarded for all the good things I have done," he said. "I did everything humanly possible to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians."
Prosecutors have painted a starkly different picture of Karadzic, portraying him as a political leader who masterminded Serb atrocities throughout the war, from campaigns of persecution and murder of Muslims and Croats early in 1992 to the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Karadzic told judges yesterday: "Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat, I am not aggressive, I am not intolerant. On the contrary, I am a mild man, a tolerant man with great capacity to understand others."
Karadzic, who faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity, was given 90 minutes to make a statement on his role in the war that left an estimated 100,000 dead.
Karadzic, a former psychologist and poet, told judges he was a "physician and literary man" who was a reluctant player in the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.
"Instead of being accused of the events in our war, I should be rewarded for all the good things I have done," he said. "I did everything humanly possible to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians."
Prosecutors have painted a starkly different picture of Karadzic, portraying him as a political leader who masterminded Serb atrocities throughout the war, from campaigns of persecution and murder of Muslims and Croats early in 1992 to the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Karadzic told judges yesterday: "Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat, I am not aggressive, I am not intolerant. On the contrary, I am a mild man, a tolerant man with great capacity to understand others."
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