(CNN) -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic intends to skip the start of his war crimes trial because he says he has had too little time to prepare, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Thursday. Radovan Karadzic wrote to the court to say he would not attend the trial. The trial is still expected to begin on Monday despite Karadzic's intended absence, which he announced in a letter to the court, the spokeswoman said. "The tribunal judges control court proceedings. They are the only relevant body that can make a decision about the readiness of the case for trial," she said.
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Karadzic says he is skipping the start of his war crimes and genocide trial
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Former Bosnian Serb leader accused over atrocities during Balkans conflict
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Thousands died during the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1990s
The conflict introduced the phrase "ethnic cleansing" into the lexicon describing war crimes, as different factions in multi-ethnic @placeholder sought to kill or drive out other groups.