Court hears Radovan Karadzic’s threats of Muslim slaughter

Judges in The Hague refused to let Dr Karadzic’s boycott disrupt the proceedings any further and the prosecution took full advantage. If the presence of the bereaved Mothers of Srebrenica who crowded the public gallery was not enough, transcripts of phone taps from 1991 reminded the court who they were dealing with.

“They have to know that there are 20,000 armed Serbs around Sarajevo . . . it will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die,” Dr Karadzic was recorded as saying.

“They will disappear. That people will disappear from the face of the Earth.”

Dr Karadzic has refused to enter pleas on the two charges of genocide and nine other war crimes he is accused of as the alleged mastermind of the bloody Bosnian conflict of 1992-95, in which 100,000 died. He is refusing to leave the UN detention centre because he wants up to a year to prepare his defence.

The 44-month siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, left at least 10,000 people dead and horrified the world as the city’s residents were subjected to sniping and shelling from Bosnian Serb forces on the surrounding hills.