MURDERING RADOVAN KARADZIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - August 11, 2008

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Former Bosnian-Serb president Radovan Karadzic claims to have made a secret deal with American diplomat Richard Holbrooke in 1996. Under the terms of the agreement, Karadzic would completely withdraw from public life and in return the United States guaranteed his safety and his immunity from prosecution at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

Holbrooke vehemently denies making a deal with Karadzic. He said, "That is a total fabrication. It would have been not only immoral, but illegal."

In spite of Holbrooke's denials, former Bosnian-Serb foreign minister Aleksa Buha told Belgrade radio that he was present when the agreement was signed. He said the deal was made "in the night between 18 and 19 July 1996" and that "Holbrooke strongly promised that The Hague tribunal would be history for Karadzic if he withdrew from politics forever."

The Serbian news media has also published copies of the document signed by Holbrooke and Karadzic.

Confirmation of Karadzic's claims of a secret deal also comes from a less likely source. Karadzic's sworn enemy Muhamed Sacirbey, the former Bosnian-Muslim envoy to the UN, claims that he learned about the agreement from US diplomat Robert Frowick on the day it was signed.

Former Hague prosecutor Carla del Ponte also believes that a deal was struck. In a meeting with Dragan Kalinic, the former speaker of the Bosnian-Serb parliament, Del Ponte said, "I am investigating the story of an agreement between Karadzic and Holbrooke." Kalinic asked "Do you believe that the agreement exists?" and Del Ponte replied, "Yes".

Former Tribunal spokeswoman Florence Hartmann echoed those claims. She said the deal would explain how Karadzic was able to live for years on Bosnian-Serb territory and be ignored by more than 60,000 NATO troops.

She told Belgrade's FoNet news agency, "Information about his whereabouts was abundant, however, it would always turn out that one of the three countries - the U.S., Britain or France - would block arrests. Sometimes arrest operations were halted by Chirac personally, other times by Clinton," she said adding that she spoke "based on authentic statements and documents".

William Stuebner, an American advisor to former UN war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, told reporters after Karadzic was indicted that he "personally witnessed a group of Italian peacekeepers at a checkpoint literally turn their backs as a convoy carrying Radovan Karadzic came by with lights flashing, just so they wouldn't 'encounter' him."

Stuebner claims to have met with Karadzic in May 1996, shortly before the deal with Holbrooke was signed. He described the meeting with Karadzic to the Christian Science Monitor saying: "He was scared to death, he was really sure they were coming to get him and was seriously looking to turn himself in."

In an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Del Ponte said that at one point Karadzic sent a message to the Tribunal "saying that he would turn himself in voluntarily. But then he suddenly changed his mind."

It would appear that Karadzic wanted to surrender to the Tribunal, but the United States convinced him to sign the agreement with Holbrooke and withdraw from public life instead. One could certainly speculate that the United States was more interested in keeping Radovan Karadzic quiet than in putting him on trial for his alleged crimes.

Eventually, Karadzic's deal with Holbrooke turned sour. The Belgrade daily Blic reported that in November 2000 the CIA tapped Karadzic's phone and discovered that he was still controlling his political party from behind the scenes. The unnamed source, who claimed to be an official from a Western intelligence agency, said "In America they went crazy realizing Karadzic was making a fool of them." At that point the protection was withdrawn.

Not only was Karadzic's protection withdrawn, Del Ponte believed that he was in danger of being killed. In her meeting with Kalinic she said, "Karadzic knows very well that he is in danger because if they find him he will not be transferred to The Hague alive."

In an interview with the Bosnian newspaper Slobodna Bosna, Radovan Karadzic's wife said the U.S. ambassador for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, "told my mother-in-law that she would never see her son alive again and that they would kill him when they find him."

Again, the determination to kill rather than arrest Radovan Karadzic suggests that the United States was more interested in keeping him quiet than in bringing him to justice for his alleged crimes. The question is why. The answer may be that he has evidence incriminating U.S. officials.

The United States and NATO supported the Muslim war effort in Bosnia. So did the Iranian Government, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamic radical groups. As the wartime leader of the Bosnian-Serbs, Radovan Karadzic may be in a position to prove that there was high-level collaboration between U.S. officials and certain Islamic terror groups in Bosnia.

Imagine the political ramifications if Karadzic were to present strong evidence linking high-level U.S. officials with terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, both of whom were active in Bosnia before masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks. If something like that were shown to be true, it would explain the U.S. determination to keep Radovan Karadzic quiet.

At his initial appearance before the Tribunal, Karadzic expressed concern for his safety. He said, "I must say that this is a matter of life and death. If Mr. Holbrooke still wants my death and regrets that there is no death sentence here, I wonder if his arm is long enough to reach me here."

The fact that high-level Serbian leaders have died suspicious deaths at the UN Detention Unit in the past should give Karadzic reason to question his safety.

On March 5, 2006 the Tribunal claimed that former Krajina-Serb leader Milan Babic hung himself with his belt. During the autopsy The Netherlands Forensic Institute noted that it was "exceptionally uncommon" that the ligature mark found on Babic's neck was narrower than the belt he supposedly hung himself with. Generally in a hanging, they would expect the mark to be roughly the same width or slightly wider than the belt.

In spite of the fact that the marks on his neck didn't match the belt he supposedly hung himself with, no criminal investigation was carried out. His death was declared a suicide and the books were closed.

Less than a week after Babic's death, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic also died in the UN Detention Unit. Less than 72 hours before having a fatal heart attack, Milosevic wrote a letter to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming to have been poisoned with a powerful drug that negated the effect of his high-blood pressure medication. His letter said, "In order to verify my allegations, I am presenting you a simple example which you can find in the attachment. This document, which I received on March 7, shows that on January 12th (i.e. two months ago), an extremely strong drug was found in my blood ... the fact that doctors needed 2 months to report to me, can't have any other explanation than we are facing manipulation."

In its report on Milosevic's death, the Tribunal confirmed that Milosevic was given a blood test on January 12, 2006 and that the suspicious drug was found. However, according to the Tribunal's report, "Mr. Milosevic was not told of the results until 3 March 2006 because of the difficult legal position in which Dr Falke found himself by virtue of the Dutch legal provisions concerning medical confidentiality."

Clearly the Tribunal is covering-up something, because there is absolutely no Dutch legal provision that prevents a doctor from telling his patient the results of their own blood test. Nonetheless, no criminal investigation was launched. The death was deemed "natural" and that was the end of that.

If Karadzic dies in the UN Detention Unit, he will be the third high-level Serbian leader to do so. If he has incriminating evidence against U.S. officials he would be well advised to get it out in the open as soon as possible, otherwise that information might go to the grave with him.

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