The former Bosnian Serb leader, who was arrested last week after 11 years on the run, appeared before a U.N. war crimes judge in The Hague for the first time to answer genocide charges for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
He told the court he had received an offer from Holbrooke on behalf of the U.S. government under which Karadzic would withdraw from public life and take other steps and Washington would persuade prosecutors to drop the indictment against him.
Holbrooke, reached by telephone by Reuters in Washington, said there was "zero" truth to claims of a deal with Karadzic.
"This is an old charge that Karadzic started in 1996," he said. "Such a deal would have been immoral and unethical ... It obviously didn't happen."
The U.S. State Department also denied Karadzic's claim.
"Ambassador Holbrooke and we have repeatedly made clear that no agreement was ever made in which Radovan Karadzic was provided immunity from prosecution or arrest," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a written statement, Holbrooke said that, as a private citizen and special envoy of President Bill Clinton, he negotiated Karadzic's departure from office with then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
"And in order to explain this to his own people, he put the story out then, and he has embroidered it over 12 years, but there is zero truth to it. I have testified to that account," Holbrooke said.
Republished permission of FOCUS Information Agency
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