A RETIRED Army colonel is due to begin testifying today at the war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at The Hague.
Col Colm Doyle is the former head of the EU’s monitoring mission in Bosnia. He was also a special envoy of Lord Carrington, who chaired the International Peace Conference for the former Yugoslavia, during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
In that role, Col Doyle met Mr Karadzic, who denies 11 charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, at least 20 times.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are expected to present evidence from more than 400 witnesses over the coming months. The prosecution accuses Mr Karadzic of orchestrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing in eastern Bosnia to establish an ethnically pure Serbian state.
Col Doyle also gave evidence to the ICTY during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, who died following a heart attack in 2006 before his trial concluded.
In his opening statement last month, Mr Karadzic described the Bosnian conflict as “just and holy”, and he claimed Bosnian Muslims triggered the war. Before that, he had boycotted the trial and attempted to delay its opening.
Mr Karadzic was arrested in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in 2008 after spending almost 13 years on the run.
Col Doyle held a three-hour meeting with Mr Karadzic in The Hague earlier this week. "Karadzic wanted to get clarification on some things I said during the Milosevic trial," Col Doyle told The Irish Times. "It was quite a cordial, civil meeting." Mr Karadzic has applied to be granted 14 hours to cross-examine Col Doyle.