Begin forwarded message:
From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 6, 2008 1:42:29 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SPY NEWS] Exclusive: âPentagon Behind Karadzic Immunity
Dealâ, Expert
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/investigations/12277/
Exclusive: ╢Pentagon Behind Karadzic Immunity Dealâ•˙, Expert
06 August 2008
Balkan scholar says State Department insiders have revealed how
Holbrooke came under pressure to pledge Bosnian Serb chiefâ•˙s
liberty.
By Nidzara Ahmetasevic in Sarajevo
The former US Envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Richard Holbrooke, did
strike an unofficial deal with Radovan Karadzic, guaranteeing his
freedom, an expert has revealed to Balkan Insight.
Charles Ingrao, a US history professor heading a documentation group
on the Balkan wars, told Balkan Insight that Holbrooke ╲promised
Karadzic he would not be arrested if he withdrew from politics╡.
Ingrao says that through mediators, Holbrooke made a deal with the
former Bosnian Serb leader in order to remove him from the political
stage in the Republica Srpska, RS, the Bosnian Serb entity established
at the 1995 Dayton, Ohio, peace talks.
He warned that written evidence of the agreement was unlikely to
emerge, however. ╲Holbrooke is not stupid,╡ Ingrao said.
╲There is
nothing written.╡
Ingrao said his information came from four independent sources in the
US State Department whose names he could not divulge. ╲We cannot
reveal their identities, since they are still very active and would,
in some cases, suffer professionally,╡ he said.
Ingrao said Holbrooke had been given no option but to offer key
concessions to Karadzic regarding his future liberty.
╲A top State Department official with intimate knowledge of
Holbrookeâ•˙s activities has confirmed that the Ambassador
explicitly
assured Karadzic that he would not be arrested, a concession known to
several others at the State Department who have remained silent,╡
he said.
╲It was the Pentagon, backed by [then President Bill] Clinton,
that
presented Holbrooke with a ╢fait accompliâ•˙ that US forces
would not
seize ICTY indictees,╡ he continued.
Ingraoâ•˙s statements come after the International Criminal
Tribunal for
ex-Yugoslavia, ICTY, published a letter written by Karadzic in which
he referred to an agreement struck with Holbrooke in 1996.
According to Karadzicâ•˙s letter, Holbrooke promised the Bosnian
Serb
chief would not be hunted down or arrested as long as he withdrew from
the political scene and public life.
Holbrooke has strongly denied Karadzicâ•˙s claims that he offered
him
immunity from arrest while negotiating Karadzicâ•˙s withdrawal from
public life.
"I'm tired of hearing to this piece of crap which is put up by
Karadzic," Holbrooke said in an interview given to BIRN Kosovo
Director Jeta Xharra, in November 2006.
╲The fact is that we made no deal with Karadzic,╡ he said.
The US State Department has also denied allegations that Holbrooke
struck a deal underwriting Karadzicâ•˙s freedom.
╲Ambassador Holbrooke and we have repeatedly made clear that no
agreement was ever made in which Radovan Karadzic was provided
immunity from prosecution or arrest,╡ a statement issued on July
31 read.
╲No commitments granting Karadzic immunity were offered in return
[for
stepping down],╡ it continued.
Reports of a Holbrookeâ•"Karadzic deal first surfaced in the Bosnian
weekly, Slobodna Bosna, several years ago. One of the sources it cited
was Aleksa Buha, foreign minister in Karadzicâ•˙s government and his
successor as a head of Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, in 1996.
Buha claimed he knew of the agreement, and even possessed a copy of it
in written form, though he did not produce written evidence for the
weeklyâ•˙s benefit.
Ingrao heads ╲The Scholarâ•˙s Initiative╡, a programme
involving about
300 scholars worldwide, working to establish the facts about the fall
of Yugoslavia.
A former NATO commander in Bosnia in 1995 and 1996, General William
Nash, meanwhile told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that ╲no specific
orders were given for the arrest of the war crimes suspects Radovan
Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic╡.
He added: ╲It was feared that it would destabilize the situation
after
the Dayton agreements.╡
Holbrooke was sent to Belgrade in mid-July 1996 to negotiate
Karadzicâ•˙s withdrawal with the then Serbian leader, Slobodan
Milosevic. At the time, the media said that following ten hours of
talks, Holbrooke appeared before reporters, triumphant, with a
statement about an agreement. ╲As of this morning, Karadzic is no
longer president of Republica Srpska,╡ Holbrooke is quoted to
have said.
Ingrao said it was time the complete truth emerged. As the
Scholarsâ•˙
projectâ•˙s American director, he said, he felt ╲a special
obligation to
hold the US government to account for its share of the responsibility
for what happened in Bosnia╡.
The Scholarâ•˙s Initiative notes that not one war-crimes indictee
was
arrested by NATO forces during their first 18 months of deployment in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Karadzic was wanted by the ICTY for genocide, compliance in genocide
and crimes against humanity. The tribunal is still seeking the arrest
and handover of two other top Serbian suspects, the former Bosnian
Serb military chief, Ratko Mladic and the former Croatian Serb leader,
Goran Hadzic.
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