Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, will today make his first appearance in court since prosecutors at the United Nations-backed tribunal opened the case against him on charges of war crimes and genocide last week.

In his opening statement yesterday, Alan Tieger, the lead prosecutor, said Mr Karadzic's only regret about the massacre of more than 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 was that some escaped what the lawyer called "one of humanity's darkest chapters".