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U.S. Diplomat Holbrooke Should be on Trial in The Hague with Karadzic as an Accomplice: Attorney

Politics Materials 1 August 2008 19:02 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 August / Trend corr. E.Tarverdiyeva/ According to attorney for the Association of Bosnian Muslims professor Francis A. Boyle, Richard Holbrook, who was Assistant U.S. Secretary of State in mid 90s, had a collusion with ex-leader of Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic, who is accused by The Hague of murder of 8,000 residents of Srebrenica.

"But certainly Holbrooke aided and abetted war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing by Karadzic against the Bosnians," Boyle, who was official juridical advisor for Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović and the representative of Bosnian Government at the International Court,  said to Trend on 1 August.

On 31 July, speaking to the Hague Tribunal, leader of Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic, who is accused of military crimes, stated there is an agreement between him and Richard Holbrook, former representative of the United Stated in the UN, who is considered to be the architect of Dayton Agreements for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In 1996, Holbrooke proposed me to abandon the public life and the United States would fulfil its obligations instead," said Karadzic. U.S. State Department denied the statement. According to an official of the U.S. State Department Sean McCormack, Holbrooke did not conclude any agreement with Karadzic, ITAR-TASS reported.

Lots of facts prove there was an agreement between Holbrooke and Karadzic.

Brother of former leader of Bosnian Serbs Luca Karadzic confirmed there is a bygone agreement between Karadzic and Holbrooke, Interfax reported.

Boyle is confident there is much truth in Karadzic's statement.

"Of course I was not privy to any personal conversations between Holbrooke and Karadzic. But certainly Holbrooke aided and abetted war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing by
Karadzic against the Bosnians," Boyle, Attorney for the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja, said.

"Holbrooke should be on trial in The Hague with Karadzic as an Accomplice," he said.

Moreover, the attorney is confident the same is true for Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Yasushi Akashi, David Owen, Thorvald Stoltenberg, and Carl Bildt.

Boyle said it would be very inconvenient for all of these individuals and their Masters for Karadzic to defend himself they way he apparently plans to do so.

Karadzic knows everything about how Western 'mediators' promoted his crimes, said Boyle.

"So I will be keeping a close eye on these war crimes proceedings in order to use this new information against these people on behalf of my clients the Mothers of Srebrenica," said Boyle.

The task of Bosnian organization Mothers of Srebrenica is to search for more than 10,000 people missing in European largest massacre, committed by Bosnian Serb army, on July 11, 1995, in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The lawyer is sure that but he will be able to use his new information against these Western 'mediators' and diplomats in order to hold them accountable to my clients the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja for the massacre. "At the end of the day Karadzic will be spending the rest of his life in prison, where he should have been for quite some time in any event," Boyle said. Boyle was the one who convinced the former ICTY Prosecutor Carla DelPonte to indict Slobodan Milosevic for every crime in the ICTY Statute for the massacre at Srebrenica, including genocide.

According to lawyer, earlier the arrest of Karadzic was undesirable, but possible for West.

In Geneva during the peace negotiations, President Izetbegović had to go in and shake hands with Karadzic. And he has been given visas to come and negotiate in Geneva. And in New York. The State Department let Karadzic come to New York to the Vance-Owen carve-up negotiations, with a US visa. The State Department was obliged under the Geneva Convention to apprehend Karadzic, Boyle said. The US had an absolute obligation to apprehend Karadzic if he showed up in New York, and to open an investigation, and to prosecute--instead, they're giving him a visa and secret service protection in New York, he said.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by UN in 1993. It is located in the city of Hague of Holland; therefore it is called the Hague. It was established to try those who committed military crimes during the Balkan conflict in mid-1990s.

"They defended military criminals and those who committed genocide. These are big powers," Boyle said.

The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]

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