http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-10-27/roar-holbrooke-clarify-possib
le.html
RUSSIA TODAY
ROAR: “Holbrooke should clarify possible deal with Karadzic”
27 October, 2009, 15:38
Russian analysts believe the international tribunal in The Hague treats
Serbians as “most responsible” for war crimes during the Bosnian war in the
1990s.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says all charges against him
should be dropped because he “was offered immunity” in 1996 by Richard
Holbrooke, who was the US mediator in Bosnia.
“He for a long time insisted that he has immunity from criminal prosecution,
promised to him for leaving political scene by US diplomat Richard
Holbrooke,” Novye Izvestia said.
Holbrooke, who is now a special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
under the current US administration, insists there was no agreement with
Karadzic, the paper said.
The court in The Hague has not received the documented evidence of the
existence of this agreement, and has refused to grant Karadzic immunity from
prosecution, Lenta.ru said.
However, even if the fact of the agreement with Holbrooke was confirmed,
this “would not save Karadzic from criminal prosecution, because only the UN
Security Council may defend someone from the tribunal’s activities,” the
website added.
Political scientist Vitaly Tretyakov asked in his blog why Holbrooke was not
summoned to court. He could confirm “on oath that he did not give any
guarantees to Karadzic,” Tretyakov said.
“And why there is no tribunal for Iraq?” Tretyakov asked. “In any case,
there was an unprovoked aggression against a small country that led to
hundreds of thousands victims only among civilians,” the analyst added.
Karadzic failed to appear for the start of his trial on war crimes and
genocide charges at The Hague’s International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia on October 26.
He also says he needs nine more months to prepare his defense against
charges of war atrocities, including the massacre of some 7,000 Muslims in
Srebrenica in 1995. Karadzic insists he is innocent of the allegations
brought against him.
Prosecutors say that 15 months were enough for Karadzic to prepare for the
trial. According to the tribunal’s charter, the defendant may be delivered
to the court by force, Lenta.ru website said. The previous famous man
accused by the institution was former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic,
who died in 2006 before his sentence was delivered.
Karadzic lived over 11 years in hiding in Serbia before he was detained by
Serbian law-enforcement agencies in July 2008. His arrest was welcomed by
the West and victims of the Bosnian war.
The 64-year-old former politician is defending himself, but the prosecution
insists that professional lawyers should defend him. The Hague’s tribunal is
afraid that the process will be protracted, repeating the cases of other
former Serbian politicians, Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj, Novye
Izvestia daily said.
Gazeta.ru website wrote that the process would be protracted even if lawyers
defended Karadzic, because they should also have time to familiarize
themselves with the case.
Alla Yazkova, head of the Center for Mediterranean and Black Sea Problems at
the Institute of Europe, believes that Karadzic wants to protract the trial
until the authorities of the tribunal expires.
His boycott means that “he will not answer questions nor will he be making
different political statements,” Yazkova told Vesti.ru. However, it is
difficult to say what will actually happen, she said.
Relatives of victims of the war, who consider Karadzic and [his army chief
throughout the Bosnian war] Ratko Mladic responsible for the killings “plan
to stage a permanent rally in The Hague,” the analyst said. These activities
may influence the tribunal’s decision which is expected to be delivered in
2012.
Yazkova added that the tribunal “released” several representatives of
Kosovo’s
Albanians, who had also been accused of military crimes. “That means that
special attention is paid to Serbia,” Yazkova said. “The tribunal in The
Hague, as before, considers Serbia the most responsible for military crimes
that were committed in the 1990s.”
“As for Karadzic, his guilt seems to be on the surface,” Yazkova said,
“because he, and Mladic in particular, managed mass deportations.” But
Karadzic himself “will deny everything,” she added.
Yazkova believes that Serbian generals “will defend their colleague” despite
the fact that the country’s leadership would like to “close this problem for
good. The public discussion about this issue is an additional irritant in
Serbian society,” she told Rosbalt news agency.
Russia has no influence in this case, Yazkova stressed. Moscow is
cooperating with the Serbian government, which handed over Karadzic to the
tribunal. On the other hand, many Serbian businessmen who work in Russia
support Karadzic, the analyst added.
Meanwhile, former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic will be released
from a Swedish prison on October 27. She was sentenced to 11-year term for
war crimes in the 1990s by the international tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia. Now a Swedish court has allowed her early release for good
behavior after she has served two-thirds of her term. During the civil war
in Bosnia she was Karadzic’s ally.
Georgy Engelgardt, analyst at the Institute of Slavic Studies told Ekspert
magazine that accusations against Karadzic are mainly based on Plavsic’s
statements. He added that Karadzic’s perspectives are not positive because
the tribunal considers not only military activities, but the whole political
struggle of Bosnian Serbs “as a big criminal conspiracy.”
Sergey Borisov, RT
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
