THE HAGUE - Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic boycotted the start of his trial for some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two, but judges said they would proceed without him if he stayed away.
Karadzic has denied 11 war crimes charges arising from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including one over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, and two genocide charges for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica and for broader atrocities.
The judge adjourned the trial on Monday after 15 minutes and said it would resume on Tuesday at 1315 GMT with prosecution opening statements, effectively preparing to try Karadzic, who has chosen to represent himself, in absentia.
Protesters outside the tribunal building in The Hague reacted angrily to Karadzic's boycott, some complaining that the former psychiatrist was trying to dictate terms to the court. He is due in court again on Tuesday.
"It is a mockery," said Jasna Causevic, of the group Society for Threatened Peoples, who stood with members of about 20 victims groups around a banner with the names of more than 8,000 victims killed at Srebrenica and the words "Europe's Shame".
"Karadzic should be brought in pyjamas to the court," Salihovic Nedziba, 56, a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica, said. "I need to be told who killed my husband and son."
The chair where Karadzic, 64, sat in pretrial proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia was empty. It was where ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic sat for four years before his trial ended with his death in 2006.
The battle of wills at the start of the trial had echoes of the Milosevic trial, where he obstructed proceedings to buy time and gain concessions from the court.
Judges are eager to get the trial of the tribunal's highest profile defendant under way after his arrest 15 months ago. Earlier this month, Karadzic appealed for 10 more months to prepare for trial, which the court denied.
"There are circumstances in which trials can proceed in the absence of the accused who has voluntarily waived his right to be present," Judge O-Gon Kwon of South Korea said, adding he would impose a legal team on Karadzic.
In response to judges urging him to attend the trial, he said he would only attend if ready. "I would and will never boycott my trial, but if I am not prepared, that would not be a trial at all," Karadzic said in documents released on Monday.
The complex trial is expected to last years and involve hundreds of witnesses. There are more than one million pages of prosecution documents.
The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s saw Serbs, Croats and Muslims fighting for land. More than 100,000 people were killed in warfare and by such policies as "ethnic cleansing".
Karadzic, former president of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic Republica Srpska, is charged with genocide over the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995.
He is also charged over the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb forces, in which between 10,000 to 14,000 people were killed according to various estimates.
Karadzic has claimed immunity from the charges, saying he made a secret deal with former U.S. peace envoy Richard Holbrooke that he would not be prosecuted if he dropped out of public life. Holbrooke has denied those claims and the court has rejected the claim of immunity.
Karadzic, who had been a psychiatrist specialising in neurosis and depression, went into hiding from 1996 after he was indicted by the tribunal and was discovered in Belgrade in July 2008 and extradited to The Hague.
Serbian officials said he had lived for years under an alias, posing as an alternative healer, and showed photos of him unrecognisable behind long hair, thick glasses and a beard.
His former military commander, General Ratko Mladic is still a fugitive sought by the war crimes tribunal.
Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff said Karadzic had exhausted all avenues to delay the trial further and asked the court to issue Karadzic a warning before assigning counsel.
"Thereafter, if the accused still refuses to appear for the commencement of trial, at that time the trial chamber should impose counsel on the accused," she said.
"The bigger question is if they decide to impose counsel and the practical difficulties that will mean," said Param-Preet Singh at Human Rights Watch, warning of the possible reaction if Karadzic is stripped of his rights to self-defence
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