IT-95-5/18-I
D11344-D11337
01 AUGUST 2008
TO THE PRE-TRAIL CHAMBER
IRREGULARITIES LINKED TO MY ARRIVAL BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL
My arrival here has been accompanied by many drastic irregularities, which I
must present to you here, and they are all linked to my efforts to respect the
law. The first irregularity I would mention is the media witch-hunt which
began in the Muslim media even before the beginning of the armed conflict and
which proclaimed me a war criminal at a time when the only victims were Serbs.
The international media continued that media witch-hunt and I was not in a
position to reply adequately so that it is now unimaginable to many people
that this court could acquit me. I believe that this fact seriously
jeopardizes the trial itself and excludes any possibility of regularity.
However, many more serious irregularities have arisen from this, and no
compensatory measures can neutralize them or bring the trial into the realm of
regularity.
The irregularities are listed here in order.
In 1996, in the name of the USA, Richard Holbrooke made the statement and
ministers who were my authorized representatives an offer which I will outline
in brief. There is no doubt that this offer was made in the name of the USA,
not only because our official received him as the authorized emissary of the
USA, but also because when we met in person and I told him of my discussions
with President Carter, Mr. Holbrooke told me before very credible witnesses
that he respected President Carter, but he was now working for President
Clinton.
That is literally what he said!
The offer was as follows: I must withdraw not only from public but also from
party offices and completely disappear from the public arena, not give
interviews and not even publish literary works, in a word, become invisible
long enough for the Dayton agreement to be implemented in full. When a Greek
journalist afterwards incautiously published my conversation with a member of
the Greek parliament as if it had been an interview, Mr. Holbrooke began a
huge media witch-hunt because I had in his opinion broken the agreement, and
so the Greek journalist had to confess how the said text had come into being.
In this way I was silenced so that I could not defend myself in the media or
deny the ocean of lies which has come down upon me to this day. In the name of
the USA, Holbrooke promised that the Serbian Democratic Party would not be
prohibited from taking part in the elections and that no more of our officials
would be removed from the electoral lists (as happened at the following
elections, but not at those held in 1996). As for me, Mr. Holbrooke undertook
on behalf of the USA that I would not be tried before this Tribunal and that I
should understand that for a while there would be very sharp rhetoric against
me so that my followers would not hamper the implementation of the Dayton
agreement. The USA kept its promise to ease the pressure on the SDS and Mr.
Holbrooke himself boasted in the press that he had persuaded me to withdraw
not only from public but also from party offices. There is evidence of this in
the media, which contain proof that there was an agreement, although there are
no details regarding the Tribunal.
The proposals that US Secretary of State Mrs. Madeleine Albright made to the
President of Republika Srpska, Biljana Plavisic: that I get out of the way and
go to Russia, Greece or Serbia and open a private clinic or at least go to
Bijeljina -- just as long as I left Pale -- are completely in keeping with
this agreement, which was not Holbrooke's private business but a matter of
state.
Apart from the incident with the Greek journalist, for which it was made clear
I was not responsible, I fulfilled my side of the agreement on the first day
and I kept to it for a very long time.
I was careful how I moved about in the first few months after I had put the
agreement with the USA into effect, not because of the international forces,
whom I used to pass quietly and without demonstration, but because of possible
adventurers and glory hunters.
However, our intelligence services noted many aggressive activities by
international forces in places from which I had just departed. These actions
were clearly organized in order suddenly to liquidate someone, not at all to
arrest him, but when they failed they were declared to be exercises, although
notice is always given in advance when there are exercises so as not to alarm
the public. The intention to liquidate me was more than obvious, as was
confirmed by the current statements of Mr. Holbrooke, who regrets that there
is no death sentence here and it therefore cannot be pronounced on me,
although that is what he would like.
Perhaps the USA and Mr. Holbrooke himself did want to keep their promises,
because Mr. William Stubner has told the media that someone called him from
the State Department and urged that Chief Prosecutor Goldstone refrain from
hunting me and General Mladic (because I had sought the same status for him),
but Mr. Goldstone threatened to resign if this happened.
It is clear that, unable to fulfill the commitments he had undertaken on
behalf of the USA, he switched to Plan B -- the liquidation of Radovan
Karadzic.
This agreement, which should have brought me peace and freedom, thus became a
source of great danger to my life, and to the life and safety of my family and
even my friends. The best example of this is the brutal raid on the home of
the priest Jeremija Starovlah in Pale, during which no one even tried to
arrest anyone but only to kill the men they found. Jeremija Starovlah and his
son Aleksandar thus spent weeks and months on the brink of death in a complete
and deep coma, which they barely survived.
Mr. Holbrooke's wish for my disappearance, if possible before I unveiled this
and other truths, is today still fresher and stronger, and the action aimed at
bringing this about are tireless. While these activities continue, and with
this threat to my life, I have to sit in a place which is known to him and his
friends and prepare my defense. There cannot be any regularity in this,
because I do not know how long the arm of Mr. Holbrooke or Mrs. Albright is,
or of anyone from that team, or whether that arm can reach me here.
After these first attempts at liquidation, the breaking of the agreement with
the USA left me with two alternatives: either to hide myself away as a free
man, or to find some way to appear safely before the Tribunal. I decide to
appear before the Tribunal.
That was when some people from The Hague came to the government in Pale and
introduced themselves as investigators from the Tribunal, which would
correspond to the completely unbiased investigating judges in our own judicial
system. The government enabled them to speak to anyone they wanted and opened
all archives to them, even without the presence of my legal advisor or that of
the government. They themselves confirmed that no restrictions were placed on
their access to whatever they wanted. They took around 300 documents.
When it was noticed that they were acting selectively and were reluctant to
take exculpatory documents, and especially when they started to issue
certificates, we realized that we had been tricked and that they were not
investigators from the Tribunal but investigators from the Office of the
Prosecutor who had fooled us and rummaged through our archives without legal
protection.
It then became clear to me that I could not come before the Tribunal because
the conditions for a fair trial would not be met, especially as one of the
chief prosecutors had said in public with undoubted certainty that I would
undoubtedly get a life sentence. She did not say that she would seek that, but
that I would get it, and I did not know if she was trying to dissuade me from
coming before the Tribunal or had made a deal behind my back with one of the
chambers and been promised that I would get such a sentence.
The next irregularity occurred in Belgrade. Unknown civilians showed me a
badge so quickly that I could not identify it, took me out of a public
transport vehicle and held me in an unknown place for 74 hours. During this
time I was not informed of the rights to which I am entitled if they abducted
me in the name of international justice. Nor did they tell me who they were or
what they intended to do with me. Nor did they allow me to speak with one of
their chiefs or allow me to make a telephone call. They did not even allow me
to send a single SMS message to one of my new friends so that they would not
go round the hospitals and mortuaries looking for me. Nor would they send such
a message on my behalf. For those 74 hours I did not exist, and after that
they handed me over to the Special Court and an investigating judge, after
which everything was regular.
The latest irregularity concerns the actions of the Chief Prosecutor. I am
concerned by the announcement of a new indictment, which I will not have time
to study, but I am still more concerned by his statement that it will all go
very quickly, and I myself wonder how the Chief Prosecutor knows this and if
he has made a deal with the Trial Chamber behind the defense’s back, or does
he want to create the impression that the Trial Chamber is working for him?
There is a Serbian proverb which says: "If it's quick, its tail has been
docked," in other words, it is incomplete or invalid. As for justice, another
Serbian proverb says: "Justice is slow but sure."
Speed is essential to the calculations of a gunslinger, but not at all in
matters of law and justice.
I ask myself and you and the whole expert and academic public what sort of
regularity I can expect.
After all the above-mentioned irregularities, I believe that there will be
more:
After the lynch atmosphere in the media and in public, to which former and
perhaps future high-ranking diplomats of great powers like the USA have
contributed so much, along with others from President Clinton’s team who are
in a hurry to see me dead.
What regularity can I expect when everything takes place in an atmosphere in
which, regardless of what truths may be demonstrated in this room, no one on
earth believes in the possibility of an acquittal?
31 July 2008
Dr. Radovan Karadzic
/signed/