(The Hague) -- The former commander accused of leading the violent purge of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s appeared at his genocide trial for the first time Tuesday.

But Radovan Karadzic insisted he would continue to boycott the International Criminal Tribunal unless he was given more time to prepare his own defense.

Karadzic faces eleven war crimes charges and is acting as his own attorney as the trial gets underway in the Hague.

He's seeking a delay of ten months, saying he's been "snowed under" by some one-point-three-million pages of documents.

The 64-year-old Karadzic rose to power in the chaotic aftermath of Yugoslavia's breakup.

He's accused of authoring a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" to carve a Serbs-only republic out of Bosnia.

Karadzic's already skipped opening arguments, where prosecutors alleged that he ordered the killings of seven-thousand Muslim men and boys in July 1995 in Srebrenica.

He's also charged in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces that resulted in ten-thousand deaths.

The three-judge panel hearing Karadzic's case has adjourned for a few days while it considers his request for more time.

　

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