On August 1, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) made public a letter from Radovan Karadzic, which was presented to the court during his first appearance on July 31 2008.

In the letter, originally written in Serbian but made available by the court in a translation, Karadzic complains about a "media witch-hunt", orchestrated or at least instigated according to him, by Holbooke or the US, and which "seriously jeopardizes the trial itself and excludes any possibility of regularity".

About the alleged agreement between Holbrooke and Karadzic, in his statement he said: "The offer was as follows: I must withdraw not only from public but also from party offices and completely disappear from the public arena, not give interviews and not even publish literary works, in a word, become invisible long enough for the Dayton agreement to be implemented in full."

Karadzic said that the offer was made in 1996 to "the statesmen and ministers who were my authorised representatives".

In an interview with CNN on July 31, Holbrooke denied that any deal with Karadzic existed.

"There is no doubt that this offer was made in the name of the USA," Karadzic said, "not only because our officials received him as the authorised emissary of the USA, but also because when we met in person and I told him of my discussion with President Carter, Mr Holbrooke told me before very credible witnesses that he respected President Carter, but he was now working for President Clinton. That is literally what he said."

In the letter, Karadzic said that in the first few months, he was careful how he moved about "not because of the international force, whom I used to pass quietly and without demonstration, but because of possible adventurers and glory hunters".

"However," Karadzic said, "our intelligence services noted many aggressive activities by international forces in places from which I had just departed".
According to him, these actions were "clearly organised to liquidate someone, not at all to arrest him, but when they failed they were declared to be exercises".

"The intention to liquidate me was more than obvious, as was confirmed by the current statement of Mr Holbrooke, who regrets that there is no death sentence here and it therefore cannot be pronounced on me, although that is what he would like."

According to Karadzic, US secretary of state Madeleine Albright had made statements to Biljana Plavsic, president of the Republica Srpska that he should "get out of the way and go to Russia, Greece or Serbia and open a private clinic or at least go to Bijeljina –just as long as I left Pale." Statements which, according to Karadzic, were "completely in keeping with this agreement, which was not Holbrooke's private business but a matter of state."

About his arrest, Karadzic's letter said "unknown civilians showed me a badge so quickly that I could not identify it, took me out of a public transport vehicle and held me in an unknown place for 74 hours. During this time I was not informed of the rights to which I am entitled if they abducted me in the name of international justice. Nor did they tell me who they were and what they intended to do with me. Nor did they allow me to speak with one of their chiefs or allow me to make a telephone call. They did not even allow me to send a single SMS message to one of my new friends so that they would not go round the hospitals and mortuaries looking for me. Nor would they send such a message on my behalf. For those 74 hours I did not exist, and after that they handed me over to the Special Court and an investigating judge, after which everything was regular."

In regards to the trial and the indictment, Karadzic's letter said he was "concerned by the announcement of a new indictment, which I will not have time to study, but I am still more concerned by his statement that it will all go very quickly, and I myself wonder how the Chief Prosecutor knows this".

The letter ends with Karadzic's question: "What regularity can I expect when everything takes place in an atmosphere in which, regardless of what truths may be demonstrated in this room, no one on earth believes in the possibility of an acquittal?"

Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that on the first day in court, Karadzic indicated he would defend himself at the trial. Experts quoted by AFP said they expected that he would try to make it a political showcase.

In 2002, Slobodan Milosevic defended himself in his trial at the ICTY, while refusing to recognise the legality of the court's jurisdiction and accusing the court of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. He was was found dead in his cell on March 11 2006, autopsies established that he had died of a heart attack.