Agreement with Holbrooke did exist

Milosevic tricked Karadzic

Author: Vuk Z. Cvijić, t. nikolić đaković | 01.08.2008 - 09:22

Radovan Karadzic told the Serbian investigation bodies that there had existed an agreement between him and Richard Holbrooke, former USA secretary of state for foreign affairs and also special envoy to the Balkans, but that Slobodan Milosevic did not want to sign it.
Karadzic said to have met with Holbrooke in June 1996. Aleksa Buha and Momcilo Krajisnik were present on that occasion. They agreed that Karadzic should leave all functions and give up public appearances. In return he would not be looked for by the Hague Tribunal.
‘Holbrooke told me it was not an agreement with him or Clinton’s administration but with the USA. An agreement was made and three people were to sign it: me, Holbrooke and Milosevic. We sent the agreement to Milosevic but he has never returned it. He told me: ‘Radovan, why would you need signatures when the biggest power in the world is giving you guarantees?’ I acted as per the agreement and on July 19, 1996 I resigned from the position of the President of the Republic of Srpska’, Karadzic said. He transferred all of his authorities onto Biljana Plavsic. He also resigned from the position of the SDS president, made no statements after that and did not interfere in the political life.
The negotiations with the Americans over Karadzic’s retirement began as early as after the Dayton Treaty in 1995. Although many testified that there was an agreement between Karadzic and the Americans, Holbrooke has so frequently denied that in recent years. He even underwent hearing in the USA Congress over agreement with Karadzic. The investigation over the agreement is being led by both the Hague Tribunal’s prosecution and the Serbian prosecution for war crimes.
The former chief prosecutor of the Tribunal Carla Del Ponte said that ‘there is a grounded suspicion that such agreement did exist’.
Florence Artman, her spokesperson, wrote in her book titled ‘The Peace and the Punishment’ that in the countries of the West there has never been a sincere intention to have Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic arrested and that the chief supporter of that stance was nobody else but Richard Holbrooke.
Serbia war crimes prosecutor Slobodan Vukcevic has heard numerous witnesses claiming the existence of the agreement: Milan Milutinovic, Krajisnik, Buha.
Biljana Plavsic who frequently criticized Karadzic also claimed that such agreement between Karadzic and Holbrooke did exist. She said that then USA secretary of State Madeleine Albright offered a sanatorium to be constructed in the canyon of the Piva River in which Karadzic would carry out his medical practice. Plavsic also said that Karadzic laughed when he heard the offer.
Plavsic, presently serving prison sentence in Sweden is the last witness heard by the prosecution for war crimes in Belgrade. As ‘Blic’ exclusively finds out she replied in a letter the questions set by the prosecution regarding this agreement shortly before the arrest of Karadzic. This letter is filed as state secret.
Former BiH ambassador to the UN Muhamed Sacirbej also said publicly that there was an agreement between Holbrooke and Radovan Karadzic. He even said that Holbrooke personally told him that at meetings with then BiH president Alija Izetbegovic. Sacirbej also said to be ready to testify over that before the Hague Tribunal. Only Slobodan Milosevic did not want to say anything about that agreement.
The USA representatives gave an interesting reply when asked about the document: ‘If the agreement did exist, it does not exist anymore’.

William Montgomery, former USA ambassador to Serbia for ‘Blic’:
Worn out cliché about agreement
‘On the basis on my taking part in meetings of my Government at the highest level while I was the ambassador to Croatia from 1998 to 2000 and then to Serbia from 2000 to 2004 I can say with 100 percent certainty that one of the highest priorities of my Government at that time was transfer of the war crimes suspects, in the first place Karadzic and Mladic to The Hague’, William Montgomery, former US ambassador said.
‘The questions for your Government and the Government of the Republic of Srpska is who gave him false documents and who knew that. That story about the agreement with Holbrooke is a worn out old cliché that I can only laugh at’, Montgomery said.

Source: 'Blic'