'US wants me dead'

2008-08-01 16:05

Mariette Le Roux

The Hague - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said on Friday the United States wanted him dead and accused it of reneging on a deal to shield him from trial by the UN war crimes court.

In a submission to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Karadzic said the United States' Bosnian peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke had promised he would avoid a trial if he withdrew from public life.

"Mr Holbrooke undertook on behalf of the USA that I would not be tried before this tribunal..." Karadzic said in the written submission made public by the ICTY.

Holbrooke strongly denied any such deal was struck after Karadzic, who was captured on July 21, first made the claims when he made his initial appearance before the UN tribunal on Thursday.

Karadzic said in the documents that the offer was made in 1996 to "the statesmen and ministers who were my authorised representatives".

This was in turn for Karadzic withdrawing "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".

He claimed former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had proposed to Biljana Plavsic, the president of Bosnian Serb republic, "that I get out of the way and go to Russia, Greece or Serbia and open a private clinic ... just as long as I left Pale".

Karadzic said he tried to meet his end of the deal, but added it later became apparent there were attempts to "liquidate me".

"It is clear that, unable to fulfill the commitments he had undertaken on behalf of the USA, he (Holbrooke) switched to Plan B - the liquidation of Radovan Karadzic.

"The 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."

Karadzic added that "Holbrooke's wish for my disappearance ... is today still fresher and stronger and the actions 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 defence," he said.

Holbrooke, credited with the Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's bloody 1992-95 war, denied in an interview with CNN on Thursday that any deal with Karadzic existed.

- AFP