US wants me dead after failed deal: Karadzic

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said Friday the United States wanted him dead and accused it of retracting a deal to shield him from trial by the U.N. war crimes court.

In a submission to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Karadzic said the United States' Bosnian peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke had promised he would avoid a trial if he withdrew from public life.

"Mr Holbrooke undertook on behalf of the USA that I would not be tried before this tribunal..." Karadzic said in the written submission made public by the ICTY.

Holbrooke strongly denied any such deal was struck after Karadzic, who was captured on July 21, first made the claims when he made his initial appearance before the U.N. tribunal on Thursday.

"Get out of the way"

Karadzic said in the documents that the offer was made in 1996 to "the statesmen and ministers who were my authorized representatives".

This was in turn for Karadzic withdrawing "not only from public but also from party offices and completely disappear from the public arena, not give interviews and not even publish literary works, in a word become invisible long enough for the Dayton agreement to be implemented in full."

He claimed former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had proposed to Biljana Plavsic, the president of Bosnian Serb republic, "that I get out of the way and go to Russia, Greece or Serbia and open a private clinic ... just as long as I left Pale."

Karadzic said he tried to meet his end of the deal, but added it later became apparent there were attempts to "liquidate me".

"It is clear that, unable to fulfill the commitments he had undertaken on behalf of the USA, he (Holbrooke) switched to Plan B -- the liquidation of Radovan Karadzic."

"The agreement, which should have brought me peace and freedom, thus became a source of great danger to my life, and to the life and safety of my family and even my friends."

Karadzic added that "Holbrooke's wish for my disappearance ... is today still fresher and stronger and the actions aimed at bringing this about are tireless.

"While these activities continue, and with this threat to my life, I have to sit in a place which is known to him and his friends and prepare my defense," he said.

Holbrooke, credited with the Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's bloody 1992-95 war, denied in an interview with CNN on Thursday that any deal with Karadzic existed.

At Thursday's hearing, Karadzic told ICTY judge Alphons Orie that the deal had put his life at risk.

"I was in danger of being liquidated because I had made a commitment," Karadzic stated. He expressed fears that "Holbrooke's long arm" may extend even into the courtroom.

No chance of fair trial

Karadzic has said it is unimaginable he could get a fair trial because the world's media have already branded him a war criminal.

Citing "drastic irregularities" in his case, Karadzic said: "The first ... is the media witch-hunt which began in the Muslim media even before the beginning of the armed conflict and which proclaimed me a war criminal at a time when the only victims were Serbs."

This had continued in the international media, he said.

"It is now unimaginable to many people that this court could acquit me. I believe that this fact seriously jeopardizes the trial itself."

Karadzic, 63, was arrested in Belgrade 13 years after the ICTY first issued an indictment against him over a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" during Bosnia's war in which 100,000 people died.

He faces 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The charges focus on the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 dead, and the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected safe area of Srebrenica.

If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.

The trial is not due to start for several months.