THE HAGUE: Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has told the court at The Hague he intends to

boycott the start of his trial on Monday.

Karadzic sent a letter to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), saying his defence was “not ready”.

He denies 11 charges

of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, dating back to the Bosnian war.

Certain charges are

related to the 1995 massacre of 8,000 people at Srebrenica.

Karadzic, who is defending himself, was arrested in Serbia and brought to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia last year, after more than a decade in hiding.

Karadzic says he has not had enough time to study a million pages of prosecution documents.

Although the trial’s start date has been put back twice, his attempts to have the start delayed by 10 months have been rejected by the court. “[Karadzic] filed a letter saying that he was not intending to appear on Monday,” said an ICTY spokeswoman.