The former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, has, as expected, failed to turn up on the second day at his war crimes trial at The Hague.
The presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said opening statements from the prosecution could proceed.
However, he warned that if Mr Karadzic does not attend court by next Monday, the court may assign him defence counsel.
Prosecutors have branded Mr Karadzic the 'supreme commander' of ethnic cleansing during the 1992-95 conflict in Bosnia.
Mr Karadzic, who is conducting his own defence, is boycotting the trial, demanding more time to prepare his case.
The 64-year-old faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the war in which 100,000 people were killed and some 2.2 million displaced.
He denies all charges, but faces life imprisonment if convicted.
Mr Karadizic's successor Biljana Plavsic, meanwhile, arrived back in Belgrade today after the UN war crimes court ordered her early release from prison in Sweden.
Plavsic, 79, was sentenced in February 2003 to 11 years behind bars after she admitted playing a leading role in persecuting Croats and Muslims during the Bosnian war.
She is the highest ranking official from the former Yugoslavia to have acknowledged responsibility for atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
