<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/karadzic-lived-under-protect
ionof-cia-agents-until-he-broke-deal-884247.html>
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/karadzic-lived-under-protecti
onof-cia-agents-until-he-broke-deal-884247.html 


Karadzic 'lived under protectionof CIA agents until he broke deal'


By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade
Monday, 4 August 2008 

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic lived under US protection
after the Dayton peace accords until the CIA intercepted a phone call in
which he broke the terms of a "secret deal" to stay out of politics, a
Serbian newspaper claims.

"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
Belgrade daily Blic quoted a "well-informed US intelligence source" as
saying.

"They went crazy realising Karadzic was making a fool of them," it said
yesterday. "The US and CIA withdrew [his] informal protection." 

Mr Karadzic has revived the allegations of a deal between himself and the
chief US peace negotiator in Bosnia, Richard Holbrooke, since appearing
before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last Thursday. 

Mr Holbrooke has denied any deals with Mr Karadzic, telling CNN last
Thursday that this was a "flat-out lie".

"He's been spreading it for 12 years through his friends, now he's making it
personally. It would have been morally reprehensible and illegal to do such
a thing ... We made no deal," Mr Holbrooke said.

However, statements by two top officials of the former warring sides seem to
confirm the deal.

The former Bosnian Serb foreign minister Aleksa Buha told Belgrade Radio he
witnessed the agreement. He said the deal was made "in the night between 18
and 19 July 1996".

The former Bosnian foreign minister Mohamed Sacirbey told the Mostar paper
Dnevni that he learnt about the deal through the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe's head of mission, the US diplomat Robert
Frowick, in the summer of 1996. 

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