FLORENCE HARTMANN : RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT HID SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL KARADZIC

MOSCOW, Russia (September 12,2007) - In November 1997 when the elections where to be held in Bosnia,the former leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminal,Radavan Karadzic,who is on the run from genocide charges, was taken on board the Russian plane to Belarus. There he lived for severalmonths,Florence Hartmann, former spokeswoman at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), recounts in her new book "Paix et chatiment" (Peace and Punishment).

According to Hartmann,French President Jacques Chirac told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that then Russian President Boris Yeltsin had warned he would send a plane to get Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic out of Bosnia if necessary. Yeltsin would never permit the arrest of Serbian war criminal Karadzic,the book claims.

According to Hartman Great Britain, USA and France purposefully left free former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic who are wanted for genocide committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

According to Hartman, in May 1997 leaders of the USA and Great Britain seconded by Germany persuaded the French president Chirac not to influence upon the situation of a probable arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

The French leader was made to acknowledge the arguments of the other that such operation must not be conducted without informing Russia about it.

According to Hartmann's account, Chirac said that he believed the United States had signed a secret deal promising to shield Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic to facilitate the peace accords in Dayton, Ohio, that ended the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.

In March 2000, Hartmann says, Carla del Ponte asked Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander, whether the U.S. had a secret agreement with Serbian war criminal Karadzic. Clark in turn accused Chirac of cutting a pact with (Serbian war criminals) Karadzic and Mladic to win the release of two French pilots held by the genocidal Serbian formations for three months in 1995.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

It has to be mentioned that previously the world media also made hints at the might be hiding place of the former leader of the Serbians living in Croatia,Serbian war criminal Goran Hadzic - it was the same place - Belarus.