Former Bosnian President Radovan Karadžić to be tried tommorow for war crimes

Radovan Karadžić, the former President of Bosnia, will go on trial tommorow at the International Criminal Court, located in the Netherlands.

Karadžić is charged with eleven counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-6 Bosnian War, including his role in the siege of Sarajevo, the treatment of detainees in prison camps and the Srebrenica massacre, where over eight thousand people were killed.

One of those who will testify against him is Dzezana Sokolovic, whose seven year old son was killed by a Serbian sniper during the siege of Sarajevo in 1994.

During the four year siege, 10,000 people were killed or went missing, with the capital's population reduced by over half to 334,663 in 1995 due to deaths and forced migration.

The former president, who denies all charges, refuses to attend the start of the trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, according to the New York Times, claiming that he needs more time to prepare his defence.

A few days ago, he asked to delay the trial by ten months. He has also claimed that that US diplomat Richard Holbrooke offered him immunity from prosecution in return for withdrawing from politics, an argument rejected by the court.

Director of the Sense news agency Mirko Klarin has told the Guardian that he believes a defence counsel may eventually be imposed.

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, also accused of war crimes during the Bosnian War, took four years and was still taking place when the former president of Serbia and Yogoslavia died.

Anthony Dworkin, of the Crimes of War Project, which studies war crimes law, told the Telegraph: "The court has learned lessons from the Milosevic trial so I think it will be a bit different...They will be a bit tougher on him, and they have narrowed it to the key points. I also think it will be relatively uncomplicated to link Karadzic to the ethnic cleansing campaign in Bosnia. He was much closer to events on the ground than Milosevic, and many of the other people who served alongside him in the Bosnian Serb leadership have already been convicted

Radovan Karadžić was arrested in July 2008 in Belgrade, after twelve years in hiding. He had assumed the identity of Dragan David Dabić, a practitioner in alternative medicine, and sold amulets on his website.

Also awaiting trial are Karadžić's former security chief Jovica Stanisic and nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj.