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(AFP) Aug. 3, 2008 – Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was protected by the United States until a CIA phone bug caught him breaking the terms of his “deal”, the Serb newspaper Blic reported Saturday, quoting a US intelligence source.
The newspaper claims Karadzic was secretly granted immunity in return for keeping a low profile.
“Karadzic, indicted for genocide and war crimes, was under US protection until 2000, when the CIA intercepted his telephone conversation that clearly proved he personally chaired a meeting of his old political party,” the daily quoted a “well-informed US intelligence source” as saying.
That view partly echoed what Karadzic himself told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in his opening written submission this week. He told The Hague-based court that US peace negotiator in Bosnia, Richard Holbrooke, had promised he would avoid trial if he withdrew from public life.
Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last month after more than a decade as a fugitive and transferred to the ICTY to be tried for alleged war crimes during the 1992-1995 conflict in Bosnia.
Holbrooke has insisted that no deal with Karadzic existed.
The Blic source said: “I’m not sure there was a written document confirming so, but I do have Holbrooke’s admission of verbal guarantees given to Karadzic from the highest level of the US.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
