Milorad Dodik, the nationalist president of Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, has testified as a defense witness at the genocide trial of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic.
Dodik blamed alleged Muslim aspirations for an Islamic state in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s for the country's war.
Dodik told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that the country's first president and Bosniak leader Alija Izetbegovic allegedly said Bosnia should be an Islamic state under Shari'a law, "which laid the foundations for the future conflict in Bosnia."
Izetbegovic died in 2003 while the ICTY was investigating his role in the 1992-95 conflict.
Karadzic, president of the Serb-dominated region during the war, is charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict.
Dodik blamed alleged Muslim aspirations for an Islamic state in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s for the country's war.
Dodik told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that the country's first president and Bosniak leader Alija Izetbegovic allegedly said Bosnia should be an Islamic state under Shari'a law, "which laid the foundations for the future conflict in Bosnia."
Izetbegovic died in 2003 while the ICTY was investigating his role in the 1992-95 conflict.
Karadzic, president of the Serb-dominated region during the war, is charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict.
