Karadzic tipped to expose US; 'Secret deals' kept fugitive at large
The Age (Melbourne, Australia) - August 1, 2008, Friday

By: Selma Milovanovic and Alix Rijckaert, With AFP

FORMER Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic may use his war crimes trial in The Hague to shed light on alleged backroom deals with the United States that helped him to evade capture for 13 years.

The former fugitive, 63, was due to make his first appearance overnight before the UN's war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Karadzic, who is facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, was arrested in Belgrade on July 21.

According to state-owned Serbian TV station RTS, Karadzic told the country's chief prosecutor before his extradition to the tribunal on Monday that former US peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke promised him that he would not be extradited to The Hague if he withdrew from political and public life.

A former high-ranking Bosnian Serb politician confirmed the existence of the alleged deal.

"I attended that meeting with Richard Holbrooke. The deal was reached in June 1996. Holbrooke confirmed it to me personally, waving that piece of paper in front of me," Aleksa Buha told Serbian newspaper Press.

Mr Buha, former foreign affairs minister in Karadzic's breakaway state of Republika Srpska, said a similar deal was reached a year later with then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

And Muhamed Sacirbey, former Bosnian envoy to the UN, told Dutch TV he had been told about the deal the day it was reached and at another time, following a meeting between Holbrooke and former Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic.

The claims were echoed by Florence Hartmann, adviser to former Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

She said the alleged deal could explain how Karadzic was able until 1997 to live openly in Pale, in the Republika Srpska, ignored by more than 60,000 NATO troops stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ms Hartmann said Karadzic had let it be known through his family that, if arrested, he would have "things to say" about promises the West made.

Mr Holbrooke has vehemently denied the claims.

"Neither I, nor Madeleine Albright, did any such thing," Mr Holbrooke told Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz.

"That is a total fabrication. It would have been not only immoral, but illegal."

However Mr Holbrooke admitted that someone had shown him the so-called "fabricated" document.

Karadzic, who hid behind a bushy beard and white hair as an alternative medicine practitioner, has indicated he intends to represent himself.

His legal adviser Goran Petronijevic told Serbian media Karadzic would seek the return from prosecutors of a large amount of defence material seized in the raid on his Belgrade apartment.

Mr Petronijevic also disputed official claims Karadzic was nabbed by Serbian secret police.

"There are various indications that bounty hunters kidnapped him and held him for three days until they got the $US5 million reward," he said.

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