Radovan Karadzic and Goran Hadzic may have hidden in Belarus

• 1.08.2008, 9:27

According to Monsters and Critics, president of not longer existing country Republic of Serbian Krajina Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic is rumoured to be in Russia or Belarus.

It should be reminded that, Dutch Judge Alphons Orie began to hear the case of former president of Serbian Republic Radovan Karadzic in The Hague yesterday. Karadzic confessed his identity at first and said he would conduct his own defense. He is to enter the pleas on 29 August, Radio Svaboda reports.

Karadzic is charged of genocide, crimes against humanity, violation of war laws. However, leader of Bosnian Serbs e denied all charges against him.

The trial is covered by numerous western and former Yugoslavian media, CNN broadcast live the trial. Observers think the trial will take a long time and don’t exclude details of possible Karadzic’s secret visit to Belarus will be cleared out.

According to Florence Hartmann, former spokeswoman and adviser to the previous ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, the Belarusian authorities hid Karadzic in Belarus in 1990ies. “He arrived in Belarus in 1997. He was there for some months, but it was a secret visit,” a journalist said to Radio Svaboda.

As The Hague Tribunal's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said at a press conference, “Arrest of Karadzic is a great success in current cooperation with Serbia and the tribunal. But the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia has to work until two more men are arrested - Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.”

According to Monsters and Critics, “Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, who is thought to be in hiding in Serbia or the Serb part of Bosnia, and Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, who is rumoured to be in Russia or Belarus.”