Shorn of the disguise that had helped to keep him at liberty for 13 years as a fugitive, a defiant Radovan Karadzic appeared before a war crimes tribunal yesterday, complaining about his arrest and talking darkly of a plot to assassinate him.

The former Bosnian Serb leader invoked the ghost of Slobodan Milosevic, once a defendant in the same courtroom in The Hague, by saying that he was receiving guidance from "an invisible advisor" and declaring that he would represent himself. The latter tactic was used effectively by Milosevic to stretch out his own trial before he died in custody.

Looking gaunt at his first appearance in Court One at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Dr Karadzic refused to enter a plea but used his right to take 30 days to study the 11 charges against him. In an initial hearing lasting just over an hour, Dr Karadzic declared that he remained a citizen of all three countries that he once hoped to unite as Greater Serbia.

The beard that he had hidden behind as the mysterious energy healer Dr Dragan Dabic had gone, and his hair was cut into a shorter version of the bouffant style that became familiar in the 1990s. But Dr Karadzic acted as though time had stood still since his disappearance in 1996, saying: “I consider myself to be a national of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska \, Montenegro and Serbia.”

Dr Karadzic, wearing a dark pin-striped suit bought for him by his nephew and protector Dragan Karadzic listened to the translation of court proceedings on earphones, waiting patiently for a chance to air his complaints about “irregularities” in his treatment.

He accused Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat who brokered the Dayton accords which ended the war in Bosnia, of striking a deal with him on behalf of the US to guarantee him immunity if he disappeared, a familiar claim and one repeatedly denied by Mr Holbrooke.

Dr Karadzic said that he now feared that he could be “liquidated” in a reprisal orchestrated by Mr Holbrooke, who was quoted last week as suggesting that Dr Karadzic should face the death penalty.

“This is a matter of life and death,” said Dr Karadzic. “If Mr Holbrooke wants my death and regrets there is no death sentence here, I wonder if his arm is long enough to reach here.”

In Sarajevo, relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre watched Dr Karadzic’s day in court in tears around a television set in a small office, and denounced it as “theatre”.

“He stole the ground from under our feet and he took the sky from above our heads, he killed our sons,” said Kada Hotic, who lost her son and husband as Serb troops overran the eastern Bosnia townshe said.

“And what we get in return is a theatre performance. The world is looking at this as if it were a spectacle,” she added.

Munira Subasic, the head of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, said that the international community should have sent Dr Karadzic “somewhere where there is the death penalty and not be addressed as ’Mister’.”

After reading the charges and his rights, Judge Alphons Orie repeatedly cut Dr Karadzic short and refused to let him read a four-page account of his grievances, or to hand the document over to the court. Dr Karadzic also claimed that he was seized on July 18 and held for three days at a mystery location before his arrest was announced on July 21.

The experienced Dutch judge was clearly keen during this initial sparring to establish his authority and not let proceedings dissolve into the kind of ranting which marred the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president who died in prison in 2006 before a verdict could be reached.

Dr Karadzic, 63, looked down or sideways and occasionally sipped from a cup as Judge Orie read him a summary of the charges he faces, including genocide in connection with the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims in the ethnic conflict of 1992-5, and the massacre of thousands of men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

Asked whether he wanted anybody informed of his presence in The Hague, he said: “I do not believe there is anyone who does not know that I am in the detention centre.”

Dr Karadzic underlined his determination to drag out proceedings, and complained about reports that Serge Brammerz, the prosecutor, wanted a swift trial. “I have concerns about speed. Speed matters in a showdown with gunslingers but it is out of place in court.” If convicted of genocide, Dr Karadzic would be the first of the 161 indicted suspects to be found guilty by the court of its most serious charge.

The court was adjourned until Friday, August 29, when Dr Karadzic would be expected to enter his pleas to the charges, although Mr Brammertz confirmed he would update the indictment, which could delay the plea hearing.

Dr Karadzic’s brother was quoted before the hearing as saying that the former Bosnian Serb leader had prepared extensively for his defence while in hiding.

“He was well-prepared for his possible arrest and thinks everything will end well, “ Luka Karadzic told the Russian daily Izvestia.

The authorities who captured Dr Karadzic had confiscated his laptop and more than 50 discs containing documents prepared for his defence, his brother said, adding that Dr Karadzic “hopes for help from Russian diplomacy”.

The charges

1 Genocide

2 Complicity in genocide

3 Extermination, a crime against humanity

4 Murder, a crime against humanity

5 Murder, a violation of the customs or laws of war

6 Wilful killing

7 Persecution on political, racial and religious grounds, a crime against humanity

8 Deportation, a crime against humanity

9 Other inhumane act (forcible transfer), a crime against humanity

10 Unlawfully inflicting terror upon citizens, a violation of the laws or customs of war

11 Taking of hostages, a violation of the laws or customs of war

Source: UN

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