War crime suspect Karadzic to get lawyer

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Thursday it is imposing a lawyer on war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

CNN said the tribunal ruled Karadzic, who is facing allegations of orchestrating acts of genocide, will be represented by an attorney despite the Bosnian politician's insistence he would represent himself before the tribunal.

The International Criminal Tribunal said Karadzic "substantially and persistently obstructed the proper and expeditious conduct of his trial by refusing to attend the proceedings until such time as he considers himself to be ready."

The tribunal did not name an attorney for Karadzic, 64, but gave additional preparation time by scheduling the war crimes trial to resume on March 1, 2010.

Karadzic is charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in acts of genocide during the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

CNN said among the acts of genocide is the 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims in the town of Srebrenica. Srebrenica exists in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.