Karadzic Wants Trial On Bosnian Serb Soil

Indicted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he is ready to stand trial under international supervision - as long as it is held on Bosnian Serb soil - a German newspaper said Wednesday.

Bosnian Serb authorities have so far refused to hand over Karadzic, who tops list of people wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Although he has officially been stripped of power because of international pressure, Karadzic retains decisive influence behind the scenes in the Bosnian Serb half of Bosnia.

Karadzic, speaking in an interview with the respected Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, said he was ready to turn himself in for a trial if the proceedings take place in the Bosnian Serb republic. The paper released a summary of the interview Wednesday, ahead of publication Friday.

“I propose that The Hague Tribunal hands over my case and the case of other accused Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina to our national justice,” Karadzic was quoted as saying.

“I would stand trial under the supervision of The Hague tribunal and the international community. This would be for me the only honorable way out of the current dilemma,” he said.

One of the key provisions of the U.S.-brokered peace accord that stopped the war in Bosnia is that suspected war criminals be tried.