SARAJEVO
The Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague in the Netherlands, Serge Brammertz said that Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic could make statements as he wished during his defense and he had the right to do so.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Brammertz emphasized that "while Karadzic could make any statement to defend himself, the judges at the case would decide based on evidence and witness testimonies".
"In criminal charges submitted to the court, we indicated that there were other places (in Bosnia-Herzegovina) where genocide was committed aside from Srebrenica. Nevertheless, no one to date has been tried for the genocide in other locations," Brammertz noted.
"I have noticed that the trial of war criminals in Balkan countries progressed very slowly. I believe that such a situation will continue to be a major problem in the future," Brammertz also said.
Former leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic denied charges of genocide and crimes against humanity as he opened Tuesday his defense in the trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague in the Netherlands.
Karadzic told the court that he had tried to avoid the war and reduce sufferings of civilians, saying, "I should have been rewarded for all the good things that I've done."
He said he "has noting against Muslims," denying any connection with the massacre of nearly 8,000 thousand Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After 13 years on the run, Karadzic was arrested in 2008 on ten separate charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in early 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia.
He also faces charges of masterminding the killing of tens of thousands of people in Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995.
