Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The trial of Radovan Karadzic, accused of genocide against Bosnia’s Muslim population, was adjourned for a day by a United Nations court after the former Bosnian Serb leader refused to attend the opening.

Karadzic will have another chance to attend the war-crimes court in The Hague tomorrow, when the trial resumes and the prosecution gives its opening statement. Karadzic’s legal adviser, Marco Sladojevic, visited Karadzic today in his cell and told Agence France-Presse that the ex-politician said he also won’t appear in court tomorrow.

Karadzic, who is defending himself, said Oct. 22 he didn’t have enough time to prepare his case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff asked the court to assign a lawyer to represent Karadzic if continues his boycott.

The former wartime leader, who spent more than a decade in hiding, is accused with Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic of atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the 1992- 1995 Bosnia conflict, which killed some 250,000 people and forced 1.8 million to flee. Mladic, 67, remains at large. Karadzic, 64, faces life in prison if convicted.

“I came here 2,000 miles to hear just two sentences from the court,” said Munevera Mekanic, 50, who lost her husband and three sons in Srebrenica during the war. She said she must return to Bosnia because she can’t afford to stay for the second day of the trial.

The former president of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic and Mladic are suspected of the mass murder of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995 and the killings during the 44-month siege of Sarajevo.

Disputes Jurisdiction

Karadzic refused to enter a plea to any of the 11 charges and disputes the jurisdiction of the court, following an example set by former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic died in prison in 2006 before his trial was concluded.

The prosecutors are scheduled to summarize the charges against Karadzic to presiding judge O-Gon Kwon tomorrow. The court expects the trial of Karadzic, who was arrested in Belgrade last year, to be completed in early 2012.

Serbia, which allowed the extradition of Karadzic, is under pressure from the European Union to apprehend Mladic and Goran Hadzic, a wartime leader of Serbs in Croatia between 1991 and 1995, and to hand them over to the tribunal. In return, the EU would speed up steps toward Serbian membership in the bloc. The men are the only suspects still sought by the tribunal.

Karadzic is held with 35 other suspects at the court’s detention unit in a prison in the nearby seaside resort of Scheveningen. The tribunal, established by a UN Security Council resolution in 1993, has sentenced 60 people and currently has 25 suspects on trial or at the pre-trial stage of proceedings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jurjen van de Pol in The Hague jvandepol@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 26, 2009 10:36 EDT