Karadzic calls on U.N. to validate immunity agreement

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appears in court at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague facing a new version of his indictment for alleged war crimes March 3, 2009.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic filed a request to the United Nations on Friday asking for a resolution to validate a claim on what he said was an immunity pact, rejected by judges of the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal.

Karadzic, 64, who has unsuccessfully tried to have The Hague trial delayed and have charges against him dropped, faces life in prison on 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, deportation, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians.

His trial will start on October 26 in The Hague, judges ordered on Thursday after rejecting Karadzic's immunity claims.

Karadzic, who led Bosnian Serbs into a 1992-1995 war that killed 100,000 people, tried to have charges against him dropped, on the grounds that former U.S. peace mediator Richard Holbrooke offered him immunity in 1996 if he left public life.

Holbrooke has repeatedly denied that claim and earlier this week the tribunal also rejected any claim of immunity, as well as Karadzic's appeal to delay the start of the trial for 10 months to prepare, paving the way for the start of the trial.

"On October 12, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY ruled that the agreement with Mr. Holbrooke was not effective without a resolution from the Security Council. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you would enact the required resolution," Karadzic wrote in a letter.

"I kept my part of the agreement," Karadzic said, adding that Holbrooke did not and asking the Security Council "to honor the agreement."

The former Bosnian Serb leader also faces two counts of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Arrested last year and brought to the Hague-based U.N. tribunal after 11 years on the run, Karadzic has denied all charges and is representing himself.