RADOVAN KARADZIC SORRY FOR NOT EXTERMINATING ALL MUSLIMS IN SREBRENICA

"He [the sniper] skipped me but got my [7-year old] child. I didn’t have the money for a tombstone so I got a donation from some charity for the purpose." Dzenana Sokolovic, survivor.

KARADZIC'S GOAL WAS PERMANENT ELIMINATION OF MUSLIMS OF BOSNIA

"Karadzic was a key figure in the joint criminal enterprise aimed at the forcible and permanent elimination of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from large parts of the BH territory in order to create ‘an ethnically clean Serb state’ there, the prosecution emphasized. On the eve of the war, Karadzic said that Muslims would ‘disappear from the face of the earth’, that Sarajevo will become ‘a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die’, that he, Karadzic, would tell ‘Europe to go f**k off and stay away until we have finished the job’. According to the prosecution, those quotes clearly indicate the mens rea of the accused and his intent in the war."

PHOTO: Bosnian Muslim couple Suhra Malic (2nd L) and Hasan Malic look at a memorial to 8,372 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica gempcode in Potocari on October 26, 2009 before court proceedings for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

"Karadzic covered up murders, and that is what he's doing even today." Prosecutor Alan Tieger.

Radovan Karadzic's only regret about the Srebrenica massacre was that some survived, his war crime trial has been told today. At least 8,372 well documented Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) victims died in the massacre in a matter of days, while 30,000 other people were forcibly expelled from their homes in a massive ethnic cleansing campaign. Many women and girls were raped during the massacre (read one of shocking testimonies about the rape of women during the Srebrenica massacre).

It had already been established in Krstic Appeal that Serb forces "targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica" so it is no surprise that Karadzic regrets for not killing all of them.

On the eve of the war, Karadzic said that Muslims would ‘disappear from the face of the earth’, that Sarajevo will become ‘a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die’, that he, Karadzic, would tell ‘Europe to go fuck off and stay away until we have finished the job’. According to the prosecution, those quotes clearly indicate the mens rea of the accused and his intent in the war.

"Karadzic is responsible for one of the dark episodes aimed at the elimination of Bosnian The only thi Muslims from Srebrenica and the ethnic cleansing of eastern Bosnia. He was regularly informed from the various sources, he was in direct contact with [General Ratko] Mladic, he knew that people are being expelled and killed. He covered up murders, and that is what he's doing even today," said prosecutor Alan Tieger.

The prosecutor stated that the accused also admitted that he was responsible for every order and decision, that he was behind the attacks against Srebrenica and Zepa and the taking of UN staff as hostages: ‘drastic measures were called for’ and ‘use of every mean to defend ourselves’.

Karadzic was a key figure in the joint criminal enterprise aimed at the forcible and permanent elimination of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from large parts of the BH territory in order to create ‘an ethnically clean Serb state’ there, the prosecution emphasized.

Karadzic knows he is guilty, so he again boycotted his trial again, but promised the judges that he would attend a procedural hearing on his defence case scheduled for Tuesday. Karadzic apparently needs more time to prepare his defence and attempt to introduce falsified records as evidence in his trial. His key 'experts' include a highly discredited genocide deniers, like Milivoje Ivanisevic and Kosta Cavoski.

During today's hearing, UN prosecutor Alan Tieger focused on Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War as he wound up his opening statement for the tribunal's judges. He called the July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica "one of humanity's dark chapters" and laid the blame squarely at Karadzic's feet.

"The murder of these men and the expulsion of the women, children and elderly did not arise from nowhere," he said. "These crimes were the culmination of the accused's determination to cleanse eastern Bosnia to ensure the Serb state he envisioned."

Karadzic is charged with two counts of genocide - for the Srebrenica genocide and Bosnian genocide - and nine other crimes against humanity and war crimes linked to atrocities throughout Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Dzenana Sokolovic who lost her 7-year old son Nermin to a sniper in 1994 and was wounded herself in the attack will be among the first witnesses to appear at the genocide trial against Karadzic.

“He [the sniper] skipped me but got my child. He is always on my mind, no matter whether I am awake or asleep,” she said. “He was only seven when he died. He was a clever boy and would sit with me and ask: ‘So, mummy, how are we going to do this? What shall we do?’... It was just a child… with blond curly hair and big green eyes. Nobody can replace him.”

“I didn’t have the money for a tombstone so I got a donation from some charity for the purpose,” she said. “I still visit his grave although when I come back from the cemetery I feel half dead for a week.”

PHOTO: A rose is seen, at the wall with the names of victims of the Sarajevo 1992-1995 siege, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009. During the siege of Sarajevo, by Bosnian Serb forces, more than 12, 000 people were killed including 1,500 children.

Karadzic's boycott of the trial last week frustrated dozens of war survivors - many of them widows from Srebrenica - who had travelled hundreds of miles by bus to see him face justice after 13 years on the run.

"We expected some kind of justice but there is not any," said Suada Mugic, a Srebrenica survivor who took a 30-hour bus trip from Bosnia to watch the trial. "This is very hard and upsetting for us. Everything reminds us of 1995. My husband disappeared, my father and some 23 members of my family."

Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz Retzlaff qualified Karadzic’s absence from court as ‘essential and persistent obstruction of trial’; the only way to resolve it would be to assign counsel to the accused, she said.

The prosecution will corroborate its allegations with documents and orders drafted or signed by Karadzic, with transcripts from the meetings of the Assembly, government, crisis staffs and other bodies of Republika Srpska, intercepted conversations between the accused and other participants in the joint criminal enterprise and testimony of more than 400 witnesses, including members of various international organizations that negotiated with Karadzic, insiders or former collaborators of the accused and numerous victims and surviving members of their families.

15 Minutes of Shame:

PHOTO: A group of Serbian thugs, supporters of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, toast and play Gusle, a traditional one-string instrument, in "The Madhouse", Karadzic's favourite bar in New Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, as they celebrate the adjourned of Karadzic's war crimes trial.