Radovan Karadzic Claims in Lengthy Statement That He Will Not Get a Fair Trial

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic believes that he will not receive a fair trial because of the lynch mob atmosphere surrounding his case.

One day after his first appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague, the court released the four-page statement that Karadzic wanted to read out yesterday but was prevented from doing so by the judge.

"It is unimaginable to many people that this court could acquit me," he wrote. "I believe that this fact seriously jeopardizes the trial itself and excludes any possibility or regularity."

The submission contains in full the allegations made against the US and particularly Richard Holbrooke, the architect of the 1995 Dayton accord that brought an end to the Bosnia war.

The accusations against Holbrooke outline the strategy that Karadzic will take during the trial ? trying to shift the focus from the charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity to the alleged duplicity of others.

Karadzic, who reinvented himself as a new-age guru during 12 years on the run, claimed that under a deal offered by Holbrooke he would totally withdraw from public view in exchange for an American undertaking that he would not be tried at The Hague.

The former Bosnian Serb leader alleged that Holbrooke reneged on the deal and wanted him dead.

"The intention to liquidate me was more than obvious," Karadzic said in his court submission, "as was confirmed by the current statements of Mr Holbrooke, who regrets that there is no death sentence here and it therefore cannot be pronounced on me, although that is what he would like."

Holbrooke has said there was "zero" truth to the claims. "Such a deal would have been immoral and unethical ... It obviously didn't happen," he told Reuters in Washington yesterday.

The former US negotiator for the Balkans has described Karadzic as the "intellectual architect" behind an ideology of racial hatred in the former Yugoslavia. "Of all the evil men of the Balkans, he is the worst," Holbrooke said.

America's supposed shenanigans is just one of several "irregularities" cited by the 63-year-old former Bosnian Serb leader. He and Ratko Mladic, Karadzic's military chief, were the war crimes tribunal's two most wanted men.

Karadzic also cites the circumstances of his arrest 10 days ago, when he said he was held incommunicado. "For those 74 hours I did not exist." In addition, Karadzic expresses his concern at statements by the chief prosecutor that the trial will be a speedy one.

"Speed is essential to the calculations of a gunslinger, but not at all in matters of law and justice," Karadzic said.

"After the lynch atmosphere in the media and in public, to which former and perhaps future high-ranking diplomats of great powers like the USA have contributed so much, along with others from President [Bill] Clinton's team who are in a hurry to see me dead, what regularity can I expect," Karadzic said.

Karadzic faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including two of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims men and boys at Srebrenica.

He declined to enter a plea and demanded more time to study a new indictment.