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Serbian Press Agency SRNA, Bijeljina August 5, 2008 U.S. IS AFRAID OF KARADZIC IN THE HAGUE BANJA LUKA - Former spokeswoman of the prosecutor's office of the Hague tribunal Florence Hartmann claims that the US and other Western powers did everything possible to prevent Radovan Karadzic from being arrested and turned over to the Hague tribunal. In her book "Peace and Punishment" Hartmann states that Madeleine Albright offered Karadzic India, Serbia, Montenegro, South Africa, one of the countries of the former Soviet Union or Greece as possible locations to live, reports Glas Srpske. She says that Karadzic rejected Albright's offer, as well as that the first to discuss conditions for surrendering to the Hague tribunal with him on behalf of the USA was Bill Steubner, a US military intelligence officer, in 1996. "Steubner proposed protection for Karadzic and the possibility of seeking shelter in one of the NATO bases, where he would be able to prepare his defense. During the negotiations the US intelligence officer invited the tribunal president, Italian Antonio Caseze, to Pale where he met with Karadzic and tried to convince him that the tribunal was not anti-Serb," writes Hartmann. She adds that Karadzic, nevertheless, decided not to turn himself in; as a result, on July 17, 1996 Washington sent Slobodan Milosevic Richard Holbrooke "who was supposed to arrange Karadzic's withdrawal from political life, certainly not his surrender to The Hague". "Holbrooke wanted Karadzic to leave Bosnia-Herzegovina. 'Why don't you send him to his mother and smuggler brother in his native village in Montenegro,' declared Holbrooke during the discussion. But no one in the conference room was able to ask Karadzic to leave quietly. Karadzic did not want to leave BH and the leadership of his party," says Hartmann. She adds that Karadzic did not want to withdraw and that he remained in Pale, which put the Serbian Democratic Party [SDS] at risk of being banned. "Finally an agreement was reached. Milosevic sent his chief of secret services, Jovica Stanisic, by helicopter to Pale to get Karadzic's signature. NATO forces waited for him and escorted him to the house of the accused, who signed the document," writes Hartmann, adding that the agreement foresaw Karadzic's complete disappearance from political life in exchange for the SDS' participation in elections. "When he got the final text of the agreement, Holbrooke declared: 'OK, the SDS is going to the elections and The Hague no longer exists for Karadzic'," Hartmann writes citing Aleksa Buha, who was in the negotiations in Belgrade. She claims that Ratko Mladic left Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 17, 1997, while Karadzic stayed in Pale and gave interviews, which strongly irritated the US. "On May 31, 1997, Madeleine Albright met in Banja Luka with Biljana Plavsic and asked her to convince Karadzic to leave Bosnia-Herzegovina and to go into faraway exile as an alternative to being tried before the Hague tribunal. Karadzic refused," writes Hartmann. She says that former NATO commander Wesley Clark in summer of 1997 told then prosecutor Louise Arbour that Karadzic, if he were to be transferred to The Hague, would say he that an agreement was reached in Dayton with US state secretary Warren Christopher for him not to be extradited to The Hague.
