Karadzic: Srebrenica death toll was exaggerated

Karadzic: Srebrenica death toll was exaggerated The Hague - Former Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic claimed Thursday that the commonly accepted number of victims of the Srebrenica massacre had been overstated, at a preliminary war crimes hearing in The Hague.

Karadzic said "we are convinced that there is manifold exaggeration here," and suggested that the real number of victims was many thousands fewer.

The Srebrenica Massacre, which took place in July 1995 during the Bosnian War, was the killing of around 8,000 Muslim Bosnian men and boys. It is held as the largest mass murder in Europe since WWII.

Karadzic was the president of the Serbian part of Bosnia during the war and as such is accused of responsibility for the murders.

Karadzic was appearing Thursday at a preliminary hearing of his war crimes trial at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

He has been indicted for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Karadzic demanded Thursday access to DNA evidence on the massacre, as well as the presentation of a "correct list of victims."

Karadzic maintained that many of the victims included in the 8,000 total were either killed elsewhere during the conflict, were outside of the country, or had in fact turned up alive.

"Everything in relation to Srebrenica that has been presented so far is erroneous," said Karadzic, a former psychiatrist who is defending himself at the trial.

Karadzic was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade, where he had been living practically unnoticed, with the help of a heavy beard, as an alternative medicine practitioner. (dpa)