Karadzic to defend himself in war crimes trial
Russia calls for Western leaders to join him in the dock
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb genocide suspect who was captured earlier this week, will defend himself before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, his lawyer was reported as saying Wednesday.
"Karadzic will have a legal team in Serbia that will help him with his defence but he will defend himself" at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Tanjug news agency quoted Svetozar Vujacic as saying.
Meanwhile, world leaders united in hailing Serbia for the arrest of the indicted war criminal who practiced alternative medicine under a false name in the Serbian capital during his years on the run. Only Russia sounded a contrary note over whether he would receive a fair trial.
In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, sounded hopeful Tuesday that the arrest would unblock Serbia's EU accession talks, which had been made conditional on Belgrade's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
"We have to talk to the prosecutor of the international tribunal but I am almost certain he is going to say there is 'full cooperation'," Solana said.
That reaction was echoed across European capitals, the United Nations and the White House, but with a dissident note coming from Russia's envoy to NATO, who called for Western leaders to join Karadzic in the dock.
Russian reaction
"If the Karadzic case merits being considered in the Hague, then next to him in the dock should be those who took the decision to bomb entirely innocent people, hundreds of whom died during the 'democratization' of the Balkans by the West," Dmitry Rogozin said in Brussels, cited by Interfax news agency.
The Russian foreign ministry meanwhile stressed that any trial should be "impartial," accusing the U.N. war crimes tribunal of "an often biased approach" and said it should be disbanded.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the arrest as an "historic moment for the victims."
Former commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia, French general Philippe Morillon, said he expected former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, one of two remaining fugitives of the U.N. war crimes court, would also be arrested.
"I think that the arrest of Mladic must follow," he said.
Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader who remained at large for more than 10 years despite an international manhunt, was arrested by Serbian security forces on Monday night near Belgrade, where he had been working.
Despite his status as one of the most wanted men on the planet, Karadzic, 63, had been working in a medical clinic with only a false name and a thick beard and white hair to conceal his identity.
Karadzic had last been seen in public in the eastern Bosnian town of Han Pijesak in July 1996, and was previously thought to have hidden in Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, or even Russia.
Following his capture, he was questioned by a magistrate who concluded "all conditions have been met for his transfer" to The Hague for trial, said Serbia's war crimes prosecutor.