Karadzic Plea Entered As Not Guilty At U.N. Court

`I`m not going to enter a plea at all. This tribunal does not have the right to try me,` said Karadzic.

The tribunal for the former Yugoslavia entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday on behalf of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for war crimes and genocide charges after he refused to plead.

Karadzic, responding to an amended indictment against him for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, refused to respond to all 11 charges against him in front of presiding judge Iain Bonomy.

"I'm not going to enter a plea at all. This tribunal does not have the right to try me," said Karadzic during the pre-trial hearing at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Bonomy asked, before swiftly closing the 10-minute hearing: "For the avoidance of any doubt, is it your intention that you do not intend to plead guilty or not to all charges?"

"Yes, but...," said Karadzic, before the judge cut him off, entered a plea of not guilty for him and ended the hearing.

Although Karadzic had already been asked in August 2008 to enter a plea -- to which he also refused to respond -- Tuesday's pre-trial hearing was called because prosecutors had since filed an amended indictment against him.

Karadzic, 63, is representing himself.

The new indictment contains the same number of charges -- 11, including two of genocide -- but narrows the scope of alleged criminal acts during the Bosnian war and reduces the areas where they were committed, which prosecutors say will lead to a more efficient trial.

Karadzic was arrested in July last year after 11 years on the run, and faces life in prison for crimes against humanity, murder, deportation, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians, and the taking of hostages, including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.