Radovan Karadzic had made a secret agreement with Richard Holbrooke
NOUVELOBS.COM | 01.08.2008 | 09: 52
The former Bosnian Serb leader, tried in The Hague for genocide, was guaranteed by the Americans to escape international justice in exchange for his withdrawal from political life, as he said on Thursday his first appearance before the Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Radovan Karadzic, the former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, had made a secret agreement with the American negotiator, Richard Holbrooke, to end the war, as he said on Thursday July 31., during his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY). In exchange for his withdrawal from public life, the Bosnian Serb leader was guaranteed to escape international justice. Richard Holbrooke immediately denied, Thursday in an interview on CNN, to have made such an agreement, although he himself has already reported this bargaining to end a war that killed nearly 100.000 people between 1992 and 1995 .
In a previously unseen interview from 1997, Radovan Karadzic recounted the deal made with Richard Holbrooke, six months after the Dayton peace accord (1995). The accused by the International Criminal Court in The Hague then declared that "the capital of the Netherlands will not have the privilege of accommodating me. Richard Holbrooke offered me the compromise of withdrawing anonymously in exchange of American protection before the Hague Tribunal. I respected my part ". This interview was carried out in January 1997, in Pale, "capital" of the Bosnian Serbs, as part of a historical documentary. It was seen by a journalist from Nouvel Observateur and authenticated by two relatives of Karadzic (See the article published in 2002 in Nouvel Observateur: "Karadzic. The secrets of a hunt": http://hebdo.nouvelobs.com/hebdo/paruti ... 0126-.html)
Richard Holbrooke had explained that his draft agreement provided that Karadzic "would leave Bosnia and submit to the International Criminal Court", in his book, "To End a War", ("To end a war"). But, after negotiations with Radovan Karadzic, this clause disappeared from the public agreement, published on July 19, 1996.
Contacted by the Nouvel Observateur, Luka Karadzic, the brother of Radovan Karadzic, who has been in contact with Pierre-Richard Prosper, the itinerant American ambassador for war crimes, estimated that the Americans have "not kept their word ". "The Holbrooke-Karadzic agreement was a gentleman's agreement, not a black and white written agreement. Radovan had to retire from politics and they would leave him alone," he told Nouvel Observateur.
Recently arrested in Serbia after 13 years on the run, then transferred to The Hague, the former Bosnian Serb leader has been charged since 1995 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for the massacres committed by its men during the conflict that tore this country apart. Jean-Baptiste Naudet
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualit ... _avec.html
While the real problem is that an exterminating despot has the right in all respects ("exemplary" trial) while he did not hesitate to organize mass exterminations of populations.
