Eurasia Press & News
The Hague Tribunal, ICTY, has refused the motion of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to question the former US president Bill Clinton.The ICTY’s Trail Chamber decided that Karadzic could not prove in his motion that Clinton’s testimony would be necessary to the case, or that the information Karadzic wished to obtain from the former US president could not be obtained from any other sources.
Karadzic had previously asked the ICTY to subpoena the former US president Bill Clinton to testify about illegal arm shipments to Bosnia.He had proposed sending his lawyer to examine Clinton in the US State Department on September 10.
According to Karadzic, Clinton knew about the illegal transportation of arms from Iran to the Bosniaks, through Croatia.
Karadzic said that Clinton had sent a delegation to the Balkans in 1995, the aim of which was to tell the Bosniaks that if peace negotiations failed, the US would directly supply arms to the Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia.
He claims that this move encouraged the Bosniaks to shell Sarajevo’s Merkale market in August 28, 1995, one of the actions for which Karadzic has been indicted.
Karadzic sent his first interview request to Clinton’s office in May, but the request was quickly turned down by the office.
Karadzic is charged, as president of Republika Srpska and supreme commander of its armed forces, with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of rules and customs of war in the period between 1992 and 1995.
His trial started in October 2009, and the prosecution finished presenting its evidence in May this year. Karadzic is due to start presenting his evidence in October.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
