<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/28/europe/EU-War-Crimes-Karadzic.php > http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/28/europe/EU-War-Crimes-Karadzic.php
Karadzic says case moving too quickly The Associated Press Tuesday, October 28, 2008 THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Radovan Karadzic thinks his genocide case is moving too quickly. The U.N. judge in charge says it is going too slowly. At a 15-minute pretrial conference Tuesday, the former Bosnian Serb leader said he is at a disadvantage in preparing his defense because the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal case is moving so fast. Iain Bonomy, the Scottish judge overseeing trial preparations, disagreed and reprimanded both Karadzic and prosecutors for not being adequately prepared for the hearing. Karadzic, who was arrested in July after 13 years on the run, faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for allegedly masterminding atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces throughout Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men at Srebrenica and the deadly four-year siege of the capital, Sarajevo. He has chosen to defend himself but is assembling a team of legal experts to advise him. "I don't have the necessary resources, I don't have a defense team," Karadzic told Bonomy. "With the speed with which matters are proceeding ... I am afraid that I will be in an even less equal position and I'd like you to be aware of that." However Bonomy said the case is not moving quickly at all. If Karadzic is having trouble keeping pace with proceedings it is his own fault for choosing to defend himself, he said. He pointed out that prosecutors are still waiting for the court to approve planned changes aimed at streamlining Karadzic's indictment — a process likely to take several weeks. "You were here on July 30 and we are only now at the stage of considering a motion to amend the indictment," Bonomy said. "That's a period of three months and we've gone virtually nowhere. Rest assured, that is not a fast rate of speed for any trial, for any court to progress." While Karadzic is entitled under the U.N. court's rules to defend himself, the tribunal fears his decision could lead to a repeat of the defects in the trial of his political mentor, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. Acting as his own counsel, Milosevic dragged out his genocide trial for four years before the case was aborted without a verdict when he died of a heart attack in his U.N. jail cell in March 2006. With that in mind and pointing out the complexity of the case, Bonomy repeatedly has urged Karadzic to hire an attorney. "It's your own choice, as you know very well, that you should represent yourself and I'm afraid that carries particular problems which you have been told about repeatedly," he said. Early in Tuesday's hearing, Bonomy expressed his anger at the pace of proceedings by walking out of court when prosecutor Alan Tieger could not give him details of several documents that have not yet been sent to Karadzic. Bonomy adjourned the hearing, saying, "that's the sort of simple information this trial chamber is entitled to have in front of it whenever it comes to court." __._,_.___
