Top UN relief official raises Israeli-Palestinian issues on Middle East trip

The top United Nations humanitarian official today voiced concern over the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, restrictions on the building of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and the long-running captivity of an Israeli soldier, at the beginning of a five-day trip to the region.

US Sen. Jim Bunning Defiant As Unemployment Aid, Highway Fund Languish

Sen. Jim Bunning Defiant As Unemployment Aid, Highway Fund Languish

Majority Leader Reid Seeks Longer-Term Unemployment Aid Package This Week

By JONATHAN KARL, Z. BYRON WOLF and DEVIN DWYER
March 1, 2010—

Sen. Jim Bunning has left dozens of infrastructure projects on hold and put thousands of federal transportation workers temporarily out of work, but he is sticking to his guns, despite withering criticism from the White House and his Democratic opponents.

Bunning, the Kentucky Repulcan, decided last week to block a bill that would extend government funding of highway and transit programs and unemployment benefits for 400,000 Americans, among other programs. He has been critical of the bill’s $10 billion price tag and its potential to add to the national debt.

Earlier today, Bunning refused to answer questions from ABC News, thundering “Excuse me! This is a Senators-only elevator!” as he boarded an elevator in the Hart Senate Office Building. “I’m not talking to anybody,” he said.

Later, in a speech on the Senate floor, Bunning, who is not up for reelection, outlined his rationale for blocking the bill.

“I support extending unemployment benefits, COBRA [health] benefits, flood insurance, highway bill fix, doc fix, small business loans, distant network television for satellite viewers,” he said. “But if we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate.”

Bunning has received support from fellow Republicans but none has joined him in blocking the bill. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he understands Bunning’s objection.

“Two weeks ago, the Democrats pushed through a toothless Swiss-cheese proposal they were bragging about, saying, ‘We’re going to pay as we go.’ And then the next thing you know, they turn around and offer $10 billion at the last minute to do what you just described without paying for it,” Alexander said on ABC News’ “Top Line.”

Bunning has proposed funding the extension of government programs with as-yet-unused stimulus funds, a move Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opposes. Reid has favored a temporary extension of unemployment benefits as lawmakers negotiate a longer-term, bipartisan extension.

Democrats have criticized Bunning and the Republicans for blocking the measure.

“As American families are struggling in tough economic times, I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.”

The Department of Transportation, which furloughed 2,000 federal workers and halted 41 construction projects this morning, says those numbers could climb if the stalemate over funding drags on.

Without the highway trust fund dollars, the federal government also cannot reimburse states for any ongoing construction projects. States were scheduled to get some $768 million dollars from the feds this week, but they’ll have to figure out how to make do without, for now.

Edward Wytkind of the Transportation Trades Department, a labor union, called Bunning’s move “irresponsible” and “downright dangerous.”

“In this economy, to purposefully put people out of work is cold-hearted,” he said. “It’s even worse that these workers perform essential functions to expand and build our nation’s transportation system and ensure it is safe for all its users.”

“He’s preventing the Senate from moving forward,” said Vice President Joe Biden today. “400,000 people will be kicked off the rolls this month if he has his way.”

Senators will take up a more long-term version of the bill to extend unemployment benefits on the Senate floor today, but it’s not likely to pass until later this week or next week.

As for the highway trust fund, money for that program is likely to pass the House this week as part of a jobs bill already passed through the Senate, meaning furloughed workers could soon be back to work.

Bunning, who has served in the Senate for over a decade, has a history of saying inflammatory things. During his 2004 reelection campaign, Bunning described his Democratic challenger as looking “like one of Saddam Hussein’s sons.” After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced she had pancreatic cancer, Bunning said she would “likely be dead in nine months.” He later apologized. More recently, Bunning threatened to sue the National Republican Senatorial Committee if it fielded a challenger to him in the primary.

ABC News’ Lisa Stark and Matt Loffman contributed to this report.

On visit to Los Angeles, Ban drums up support for UN’s work

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is meeting with key members of the creative community in Los Angeles to mobilize support for the goals and mission of the United Nations, including its efforts to deal with climate change, global hunger and the financial crisis.

Darfur: UN-African Union mission seeks to boost ceasefire monitoring

Following last week’s signing of a ceasefire between the Sudanese Government and a major rebel group, the joint United Nations-African Union mission in the war-ravaged Darfur region has announced that it plans to increase its capacity to monitor the agreement to end hostilities.

Somalia News Update: NATO Sinks Mothership; Clashes Between Al Shabaaband Hizbul Islam

NATO sinks Somali pirate monthership

Monday, March 1 05:42 pm

The Absalon, flagship of NATO’s counter-piracy efforts off the Horn of
Africa, “disrupted a piracy attack in the Somali basin on Sunday and
then scuttled a mothership,” the spokesman said.

The ‘mother-ships’ are used to move attack teams into an area from
which they can launch raids on passing ships.

“This was a very well executed operation,” said Commodore Christian Rune, commander of NATO’s anti-piracy mission.

“Disrupting the pirates capability just off their main pirate camps
sends a strong signal to the pirates that NATO and the international
community do not tolerate their actions” he added in a statement from the operation’s British base.

“Disposing of their vessels before they can head to sea hits the
pirates before they can present a threat to merchant shipping,” he
added.

Somali pirates, targeting one of the world’s busiest maritime trade
routes, raked in an estimated 60 million dollars in ransoms last year.

Somalia: Hizbul Islam commander vows more war with Al Shabaab

1 Mar 1, 2010 - 11:32:12 AM

A high ranking official of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam has vowed to
intensify the fight against the rival Al-Shabaab group across war-torn
Somalia.

Sheikh Ahmed Madobe said the group is his number one enemy, vowing to wipe it out of the country.

“Al-Shabaab is an enemy and we will fight them everywhere including
Mogadishu. They want to obliterate our religion,” he said.

“We will target Al-Shabaab officials with explosions and bullets to
wipe them out of the country,” he adds.

Commenting about the defection of Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Al-Turki, a notorious Islamist guerrilla leader to Al-Shabaab early this year, Sheikh Madobe said he has no communication with him.

“Sheikh Hassan Turki has not communicated with us since he joined
Al-Shabaab, and also he had spoken about our fight against Al-Shabaab. So, it seems he took a personal decision.”

Early this month Sheikh Madobe vowed to fight ‘whoever joins
Al-Shabaab, we will also fight him’, in reference to Al-Turki’s
decision.

Al-Shabaab has all along being insisting that Madobe is an
Ethiopian-backed individual has is out there to wreak chaos amongst
the Islamists.

However, top Hizbul Islam officials have maintained that the official
is still in their ranks.

The two groups broke ranks after engaging in bloody war over the
control of southern Somali regions.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somalia: Al Shabaab court sentences fighters accused of robbery

1 Mar 1, 2010 - 11:31:08 AM

A court operated by Somalia’s hardline insurgent Al-Shabaab group has on Sunday handed jail sentences to five of the group’s fighters who were accused of stealing money from a local money bureau in the restive capital Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.

The “ad-hoc” Islamic Court at Mogadishu’s Bakara Market found the five men guilty of making off with some USD $9,260 and sentenced then one year each, according to one of Al-Shabaab’s Judges called Sheikh Abdulxaq.

The court also delivered sentences to six other robbers who went away with $$33,400 before disappearing to government-controlled areas, he adds.

Al-Shabaab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, has previously carried out public executions, amputations and floggings in various parts of the war-torn nation.

However, today’s judgment was different because it involved the
group’s fighters who were tasked to ‘keep and implement’ the Sharia
law in the country.

The most memorable event happened Last year October when a Somali teenage girl Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death on by dozens of Al-Shabaab militiamen in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo sparking international condemnation.

The group, which is in the list of Washington’s most wanted foreign
terrorist group is fighting the UN-backed government in a bid to
overrun the Horn of African nation and subject it to strict version of
Sharia Law.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somalia: Top Al Shabaab leaders in Kismayo meeting

28 Feb 28, 2010 - 11:12:47 AM

Informed sources say more than 10 top officials including among others Sheikh Hassan Abdullahi Al-Turki, who recently joined ditched Hizbul Islam and Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur held town close door meetings, which the local media was barred from covering.

Sources, who requested not to be named, told Garowe Online that the officials were deliberating on how to counter possible government offensives on the group’s positions in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Abu Mansur says his group is not planning to carry out attacks on its neighbor Kenya but requested Nairobi to stop
military maneuvering along the border.

“We are not planning to wage war against Kenya, we are more focused on ensuring security in our areas. But if we come under attack, then we must defend ourselves,” he told crowd in Kismayo.

Kenya, which officially closed its borders with Somalia in late 2006,
has strengthened its border patrol after previously receiving threats
from the Somalia-based Islamist groups.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somalia: New row emerges between top TFG officials

27 Feb 27, 2010 - 12:25:26 AM

New row has emerged between Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohammed Nur Madobe over speaker’s tenure.

The two met on Thursday at Villa Somalia but failed to come to a
census over the issue, a well informed lawmaker told Garowe Online on condition of anonymity.

The source further states that the speaker rebuffed president’s plans
to replace him, a plan that is supported by many of Sheikh Sharif’s
close associates.

The speaker is said to be adamant to bow to the pressure of stepping down, arguing that his mandate goes hand in hand with the formation of the transition government.

In retaliation, some lawmakers allied to the speaker have also put
Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke on the spot over what they termed his failure to implement pledges he made when appointed to the post.

The internal wrangles have also spread to the military and police,
whose commandants are said to have divided their loyalties across the two leaders.

The political dispute between top TFG officials comes at a time when
the fragile UN-backed government is preparing to launch attacks on the powerful insurgents who are determined to run the war-torn nation.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somali lawmaker urges gov’t to face parliament

26 Feb 26, 2010 - 2:07:19 AM

A Somali lawmaker has censured the embattled transition government for failing to fulfill pledges, calling on it to ask the parliament for vote of confidence.

Mohammed Sheikh Yussuf lawmaker told reporters in the restive capital Mogadishu that the government of President Sharif Sheikh Sheikh Ahmed, which recently celebrated the first anniversary since its inception, has failed to implement the federal chartered across the country.

“The government failed to execute the federal system across the
country in the one year of its existence, which was mandated to do so. Now it must ask for a vote of confidence from the parliament,”

He adds, “A motion on accountability is before the floor of the house
and this motion entails the incapability of the government to
implement the federalism in the country,”

He argues that the current government is constitutionally illegitimate
and has to seek the parliament approval to continue its work.

His sentiments come at a time when the transition government, which is a product of UN-backed peace and power sharing process held in neighboring last years, deliberates on changing the federal chartered.

The fragile government only control pocketful of Mogadishu with the
rest including southern Somalia under the hands of Al-Shabaab and
Hizbul Islam, the two main insurgent groups.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somalia/Kenya: Wetang’ula wants Maalim’s conduct investigated

28 Feb 28, 2010 - 11:09:44 AM
By David Ochami

For the first time in the country’s history, Parliament will
investigate a Deputy Speaker for his activities while on official duty
abroad.

Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula has written to Parliament’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee to investigate Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim’s activities on a tour of Somaliland in December last
year.

The cause is key speeches he is alleged to have made that reportedly promoted separatism in Somalia and fostered ethnic disharmony between Somaliland and Puntland.

Committee chairman Adan Keynan admitted at the weekend that the
minister wrote a letter seeking investigation, but declined to provide
details citing Parliament’s Standing Orders.

“It is true we have received the complaint and we are going to work on it,” said Mr Keynan, who added Maalim “will be summoned soon”.

According to sources, Wetang’ula wants the Lagdera MP probed for
speeches he made at various functions when he visited Somaliland
between December 22 and December 29, which allegedly caused tension in the two regions of Somaliland.

But the TFG’s Ambassador to Kenya Muhamed Ali Nur denied any knowledge of a protest by his Government, although he was aware of Maalim’s visit. He also denied knowledge of any controversy stirred by Maalim. The Deputy Speaker could not be reached for comment.

Source: Standard

Somalia: Insurgent groups at loggerheads over recent bombings

24 Feb 24, 2010 - 10:59:03 AM

Somalia’s militant groups are at loggerheads over explosions that
targeted their positions in the restive capital Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab’s spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohammued Raghe aka Ali Dhere pointed the accusing fingers on Hizbul Islam over recent explosions in their strongholds including the capital’s main market Bakara.

“We have discovered that the people behind the blast at Bakara’s
medical stores, fuel centre and recently at the Baar Ubax intersection
were affiliated to Hizbul Islam,” he told reporters.

However, his claims were quickly denied by Hizbul Islam spokesman
Mohammed Ma’alin Ali who said they have no links whatsoever with the blasts.

“Our group is not behind the blasts that rocked Mogadishu. We view
these sentiments as fabrications, because we can’t attack our own
positions,” he said, adding that his group is still committed in the
unification of the Islamist fighters in the fight against the
government and African Union troops.

Al-Shabaab cried foul over recent blasts that target their
strongholds, which according to sources were assassination plots
against the group’s top officials.

The two armed groups, which are involved in military struggle against
the weak transition government, are also engaged in tough tussle over the control of southern Somali regions.

GAROWE ONLINE

Somalia can handle more funds directly: AU

25 Feb 25, 2010 - 9:05:28 AM
By Abdiaziz Hassan

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia has made progress restoring state
institutions and accountability and its administration can now handle
more funds directly, the African Union’s deputy head of mission to
Somalia said.

For nearly two decades, the Horn of Africa nation has had no
functional central government and its transitional administration
controls only sections of the capital Mogadishu.

Wafula Wamunyinyi, the deputy special representative for the AU
Commission for Somalia, said the government received inadequate direct funding, and that there were still some impediments to them getting more aid.

“They were working hard in re-establishing state institutions,
coordination and implementation of the plans; they are making progress … and taking care of the accountability system,” he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“They are now making progress, working some specific budgets for the first time, and that kind of thing shows there is a direction …
Then, donors will release the funds to them eventually.”

Wamunyinyi said the mission had received more than half the $213
million donors have pledged to help restore Somalia’s security and
public services.

International donors agreed last April to provide the money to help
Somalia’s transitional government and the 5,000 AU troops providing
security to the government.

“I think over $120 million … has been directed to trust funds, and
some progress has been made on that,” Wamunyinyi said, speaking in his office in the Kenyan capital.

“The pledges have been flowing until now, I am sure we have received most of the funds.”

Rebels fighting the transitional government frequently attack the AU
troops, who have been able to do little more than protect the city’s
air and sea ports, its presidential palace and a few strategic blocks
in between.

Wamunyinyi said more troops from Uganda and Burundi were waiting to be airlifted to bolster their numbers.

“These two countries will send an additional battalion each. As soon
as the logistical arrangements are done, they will move in,” he said.

He said the AU’s rules of engagement were adequate, and the mission could help the government hold the capital if it decided to push away the rebels.

“We are not there to fight on behalf of Somalis. If they keep away the
insurgents, that would be very good idea, a good step in the right
direction.”

Source: Reuters

It Is Time For Obama to Meet Ahmadinejad

It is time for Obama to meet Ahmadinejad

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on February 27th, 2010

The US needs to drop the false dichotomy of sanctions or war and embrace direct talks, says Marwan Bishara.

The two-day visit by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, to Syria and his warm meetings with his Syrian counterpart as well as with the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas have ruffled many feathers in the US, Europe and Israel.

Although they said much about the future of the region, including the end of the ‘Zionist regime’, the anti-Israeli gathering has sent a primarily strategic not polemical message: We stand united - an attack on one of us is an attack on all.

A deterrent message to both Israel and the US, it comes against the backdrop of increased war speculation in Israel and mounting pressures to pass a new round of tougher sanctions against Iran.

It is also a wake up call for US diplomats who reckoned that Washington’s rapprochement with Damascus, including the reopening of its embassy, should lead to a severing, or at least cooling, of Syrian relations with Tehran.

But while such public posturing has not deterred Israel or worried Washington in the past, it does complicate attempts to isolate Iran or its allies.

Diplomatic assault, military preparations

Since the White House shifted its Iran strategy from accommodation to confrontation, Washington’s coercive diplomacy has been going at full speed.

The Obama administration has been lobbying the Middle East and the world’s influential capitals in the hope of isolating Iran and passing another UN Security Council resolution that would include biting sanctions against Tehran.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, escalated US rhetoric against the Iranian regime during a visit to the Gulf where she warned of a Revolutionary Guards takeover and the militarisation of the Iranian government.

General Petraeus made a similar visit to the Gulf and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, travelled to Russia, followed by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to convince Moscow to abandon Iran.

However, Washington seems frustrated by either the lack of positive response or the slow pace of international reaction to Tehran’s persistence in enriching uranium and expanding its nuclear and missile programme.

Russian hesitance, Chinese objection

Russia seems to have softened its rejection of the US strategy of sanctions, but has not agreed to them either. Moscow thinks it is too early to carry out such escalatory actions when the issue is still being discussed at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

If and when such sanctions come to be voted on at the UN Security Council, Russia insists that they should be focused solely on the nuclear programme, not the country or its regime which Moscow does not consider to be a dictatorship.

Beijing is as sceptical of Washington’s motives and more reluctant than Moscow to slap Iran with tough new sanctions.

Moscow’s approach is defined primarily by security considerations, especially the loss of whatever strategic leverage it has with Tehran and the probable escalation on its southern borders. China’s thinking, however, is molded on geo-economics grounds, particularly the prospect of losing Iran as an important energy supplier and economic partner.

The Chinese and Russian leadership are both uneasy with the new American escalation in the Islamic world after US entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They worry that the political and security overspill from widening the landscape of confrontation in the Muslim world could end up affecting their substantial Muslim minorities and eventually their internal stability.

Washington’s attempt to make up for the loss of Iran’s energy supply (through Saudi Arabia?), and its persistent warning to Russia about the alternative to sanctions (war!) do not seem to have, yet, convinced the two key veto carrying members of the UN Security Council to come on board.

Neither side believes sanctions will bring a solution to the impasse with Iran and both consider protracted geopolitical tensions with Iran to be terribly destabilising.

Anxious Saudi, aggressive Israel

Regionally, the two relevant powers, Saudi Arabia (to a far less extent, Egypt) and Israel are keen to stop Iran’s nuclear programme and to curtail Tehran’s influence.

However, as Israel nudges its US patron to move speedily towards imposing new tough sanctions and to prepare for war, Riyadh is worried about a new protracted American strategy and insists on a speedier end to the tensions with Tehran.

The Gulf states are the first to be affected by long-term tensions or military escalation between the US and Iran.

Recent US naval deployments in the Gulf and its sales of sophisticated weapons to Gulf countries have not calmed their fears that an escalation of those tensions could bring down their economies and affect their security.

The same could apply to other parts of the ‘Greater Middle East’ such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine which could be affected by an escalation between the US and Iran.

US bold, Iran confident

Who will blink first is the whole point of this dangerous diplomatic exercise.

Iran reckons that China and Russia will not sacrifice their relations with Iran and will object to another American escalation in the Middle East. They also realise that new punitive measures will not suffice to curtail Tehran’s programme.

For its part, the Obama administration calculates that Chinese/Russian cooperation is indispensable, but that it will take substantial political capital and major quid pro quo for them to come on board.

If Iran continues to defy Washington publicly and successfully, the political price demanded by Russia and China could only increase, all of which puts extra pressure on Washington to act promptly.

But what can the Obama administration offer its fellow UN Security Council members that is worthy of isolating Iran, aside from threatening the alternative - war?

And there is no doubt that war will be either horribly destructive or terribly protracted. Either way, Washington has the most to lose, not Moscow or Beijing.

All of which should send the Obama administration back to the drawing board. Has President Obama truly exhausted the diplomatic track before the US attends to sanctions or war?

In other words, has the Obama administration truly extended a hand or unclenched its fist for the sake of a peaceful resolution to the Iranian Middle East impasse?

The answer is an unequivocal NO.

It is time to remind Barack Obama of his willingness as a candidate to meet with his Iranian counterpart as president if that can protect US interests, and remind President Ahmadinejad of his welcoming of the extended US hand for peace last spring.

Well Mr Presidents, it is time.

I shall discuss the context, nature and implications for such a breakthrough next … as promised.

To be continued …

Today on New Scientist: 1 March 2010

All today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: riding shotgun with the tornado chasers, how dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth, and sniffing out the truth about pheromones

Head of UN nuclear watchdog urges greater cooperation from Iran

Stepped-up cooperation from Iran is crucial to ensure that the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can verify that all nuclear material in the country is for peaceful purposes, the head of the watchdog said today.

UN assisting Chile in aftermath of massive quake

Following a request from the Chilean Government for assistance in the wake of Saturday’s devastating earthquake, the United Nations and Member States are assisting the South American nation to assess the damage wrought and help people in need.

Karadzic Addresses Court in The Hague, Says Serbian War in the 1990sWas ‘Just and Holy’

Monday, March 01, 2010
19:21 Mecca time, 16:21 GMT

Karadzic calls war ‘just and holy’

Karadzic denies any wrongdoing but has refused to enter a formal plea

Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, has told judges presiding over his genocide trial that the Bosnian wars during the 1990s were “just and holy”.

Karadzic addressed the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on Monday, ending his months-long boycott of the proceedings.

He told that court that the Bosnian Serbs had defended themselves against Islamic fundamentalists who had started the war in Bosnia to lay claim to the entire country.

“I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy. We have a good case. We have good evidence and proof,” he said.

‘Reluctant’ Serbs

Karadzic, dressed in a dark suit and tie, traced the origins of the 1992-95 war to the rejection by Bosnia’s Muslim leadership of any power-sharing proposal.

He argued that conflicts resulting from the break-up of Yugoslavia were a natural consequence of the struggle for land.

Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in The Hague, said that Karadzic had appeared as “unapologetic, proud, at times even veering to sarcasm”.

“Overall the tone of Mr Karadzic is proud, defiant, what he’s saying is that there was certainly no plot on the part of the Bosnian Serbs to exterminate the Muslim, or Croat community,” said Phillips.

“Certainly not to ethically cleanse them out of any part of Bosnia.

“Rather the Serbs very reluctantly acquiesced in Bosnia’s secession from Serbia, from Yugoslavia at that time, they didn’t want that secession to happen.

“And even then it was Muslim desire for domination in Bosnia, and the nefarious interference of Western powers, perhaps in particular Germany, which took Bosnia into civil war, and not the acts of the Serbs themselves.

“It’s an interesting defence, and it’s a defence which I think will surprise many people in Western Europe and indeed in the Muslim world.”

‘Greater Serbia’

Addressing the court, Karadzic said: “I stand here before you not to defend the mere mortal that I am, but to defend the greatness of a small nation in Bosnia Herzegovina.

“Which for 500 years has had to suffer and has demonstrated a great deal of modesty and perseverance to survive in freedom.”

The wartime Bosnian Serb leader is accused of having colluded with Slobodan Milosevic, the late Yugoslav leader, with the aim of creating a “Greater Serbia” that was to include 60 per cent of Bosnian territory.

Karadzic stands charged as the “supreme commander” of an ethnic cleansing campaign of Croats and Muslims in the Bosnian war in which 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million displaced.

He is facing 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but though he denies any wrongdoing, he has refused to enter a formal plea.

Among the charges against Karadzic are the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 captured Muslim men and boys, and the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo that ended in November 1995, leaving about 10,000 people dead.

Hasan Nuhanovic, a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre who lost his parents and brother there, spoke to Al Jazeera from Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.

Nuhanovic said: “Radovan Karadzic is being tried in The Hague, it’s very important.

“But, it’s even more important, in my opinion, that the shooters, the people who killed my family, who still live in my neighbourhood, not really far from where I live, they are still free. And they have not been prosecuted.

“So while their leader is being tried in the The Hague, I expect the authorities of this country to try the war criminals who still live here in our neighbourhood, that’s very important as well for this community.”

Trial boycott

Karadzic had refused to attend the opening of his trial last October, insisting on more time to prepare his case and causing a four-month delay.

He had sought a new delay of the trial until June 17 after his two-day opening statement concludes on Tuesday, to study an additional 400,000 pages of prosecution evidence he claims have been filed since October.

His request was refused by the court which ruled last Friday that the first prosecution witness, whose identity is being withheld, will testify on Wednesday.

Under these circumstances, Karadzic was likely to resume his boycott, said Marko Sladojevic, his legal adviser.

In November, the court appointed Richard Harvey, a British lawyer, to take over the defence if Karadzic opted to continue his boycott of the court.

Nato manhunt

First indicted in 1995, Karadzic eluded a Nato manhunt for more than a decade before being caught in July 2008 in Belgrade, where he had been living as a new-age philosopher.

Karadzic faces possible life imprisonment if convicted in what is one of the last and largest cases brought to the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The UN Security Council, which set up the tribunal in 1993, has ordered it not to open new cases.

The tribunal has indicted 161 political and military officials, of which 40 cases are still continuing.

Two fugitives, Karadzic’s former top general, Ratko Mladic, and Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, could still be brought to trial at The Hague.

Karadzic is scheduled to return to the courtroom on Tuesday to present the rest of his opening statement.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies