Karadzic asks for DNA from graves

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said Thursday he wants access to DNA from mass graves in an attempt to show that the death toll in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Muslim men has been exaggerated.

Karadzic has indicated in a series of pre-trial hearings before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal that he will attempt to challenge the truth of some of the most notorious atrocities of 1992-1995 Bosnian war. He alleged in one instance that mortar attacks that killed scores in a Sarajevo market were carried out by Muslim fighters instead of Serbs.

Prosecutors have not commented on the strategy. They have charged Karadzic with genocide for allegedly masterminding the mass slayings in Srebrenica, which are considered Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War.

Karadzic told a pretrial hearing that he wants access to DNA retrieved from mass graves because he believes the toll of Bosnian Muslims killed by Serb forces during one week in July 1995 in the former UN-protected enclave is "thousands" below the widely accepted figure of about 8,000.

He conceded that some people found in the mass graves with bound hands were executed. He suggested that others may have died in combat when Bosnian Serbs overran the enclave or in fighting between Serb and Muslim forces years earlier.

"We have to establish the truth about when somebody died, whether they died in 1992, 1993 or 1995; whether they were killed in combat or executions," he said.

Judge Iain Bonomy asked how DNA tests would help with this defence and Karadzic did not respond.

Bonomy warned that Karadzic's request could delay his trial, which has no start date yet.

At a ceremony this month marking the massacre's 14th anniversary, relatives laid to rest the remains of 534 victims recently disinterred from mass graves. They were buried beside 3,297 graves at the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial centre.