Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said at a trial in The Hague that the Serbian cause in the Bosnian war was "just and holy" and that the Bosnian Muslims took a course that "inevitably led to war."
"I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy," Karadzic told the trial through a translator.
"The Muslim leadership strictly stuck to this solution which could only lead to war. And this solution was sovereign and independent Bosnia 100 percent," Karadzic said addressing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
"I stand before you not to defend the mere mortal that I am but to defend the greatness of a small nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina which for 500 years has had to suffer and has demonstrated a great deal of modesty and perseverance to survive in freedom," he said.
The trial of Karadzic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," accused of war crimes and genocide dating from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, resumed on Monday after a four-month suspension.
The trial started on October 26, 2009, but was postponed in early November due to Karadzic's refusal to attend court sessions.
Karadzic, who is defending himself at the trial, claimed he needed at least 10 more months to prepare his defense rather than the three and a half allotted by the court.
Prosecutors had urged the judges not to allow Karadzic to deliberately hold up the trial, arguing that he had 15 months to prepare for the trial and should have been ready for court proceedings to begin, and on November 5, the Tribunal appointed a lawyer for Karadzic and ruled that if he boycotted the March 1 hearing, or any subsequent court session, Briton Richard Harvey would defend him.
Karadzic, 64, was arrested last year after more than 12 years in hiding. The crimes he is accused of include the massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.
Karadzic insists he is innocent of all charges brought against him.
SARAJEVO, March 1 (RIA Novosti)
