Mr. Karadzic, 64, denies the 11 charges against him, including two of genocide, for his actions during the Bosnian War of 1992-95, which pitted Serbs against Muslims and Croats.

Prosecutors say Mr. Karadzic led a genocidal campaign to make Bosnian Muslims "disappear from the face of the earth" and carve out a mono-ethnic state for Bosnian Serbs during a war that killed an estimated 100,000 people.

"Everything that Serbs did is being treated as a crime," Mr. Karadzic said, arguing in his opening statement that conflicts resulting from the break-up of Yugoslavia were a natural consequence of the three groups fighting for land.

"Yugoslavia could only be broken up in war," he said.

He accused Bosnian Muslims of rejecting power-sharing proposals in order to create an Islamic fundamentalist state, describing his fight against them as "just and holy."

National Post